Fifty bucks says
by entersomethingcleverhere
Summary: When Oliver Queen lets Felicity Smoak move in as his platonic roommate, Tommy, Thea and Digg don't believe for a second it'll last. So of course they're going to try and make money off of it.
1. Chapter 1

Thea Queen knew her brother better than anyone in the world.

OK, sure, there was Tommy. Tommy Merlyn was like Oliver's brother from another mother (something they both made note of frequently, especially when they were plastered). Sure, they'd been inseparable since close to birth.

And, all right, there was also Digg. Though he was older and had met Oliver much later than Tommy, he had quickly become the equivalent of an older brother/mentor to both Queen siblings.

So yeah. Tommy and Digg had _maybe_ a believable claim to knowing Oliver well.

But they still didn't know him nearly as well as Thea did. She grew up with him. She followed him around like the adoring younger sister she'd always been. And while she followed, she watched him.

She'd been there with him through all the women, through all the various tabloid scandals, through getting his shit together at culinary school and the subsequent world travel to expand his horizons and learn more about his "art." She'd been there through all of it.

Thea could guess what her brother was thinking or feeling just by a cursory glance at his expression. She could also accurately predict how he would react in any given situation.

Oliver Queen very rarely surprised her anymore.

Which was precisely why her first reaction was to roll her eyes when a cute blonde girl with glasses and a pink dress answered his apartment door one fine Saturday afternoon when she had come calling.

"Oh," the blonde said in surprise, but she quickly recovered herself. "Hi! You must be Thea Queen."

Well at least she was already smarter than the last one.

"Yeah," Thea answered, eyeing the woman with distaste. "I'm here to see my brother."

She didn't even bother to ask for the blonde's name. Not like she was going to be sticking around for very long anyway.

"Right," the blonde nodded. "Because you're his sister and all. You two share chromosomes. Some quality chromosomes, apparently. Some grade A genetics, the two of you have. I mean, the both of you are stunners. He's like a Greek god and you're like a supermodel."

Then she froze, like she had just realized the words that had escaped her mouth.

"I'm not hitting on you," she blurted out.

Thea just raised a single eyebrow in response.

Blondie blushed and stepped away from the door. "I'll go get him for you." And with that, she scampered away.

Thea stepped over the threshold and closed the door behind her, watching with narrowed eyes as Blondie traipsed around the apartment. Though she hardly batted a lash when her brother brought home some anonymous girl, his choice did give her a little pause. She was on the shorter side, which was a change for him. And she was blonde. It was widely known around Starling City that Oliver Queen had a preference for brunettes.

Seconds later, the man himself emerged from the hallway and smiled when he spotted his sister. "Heya, Speedy," he greeted her, leaning down to peck her on the cheek. "John and Tommy here yet?"

She shook her head. "Nah, but they said they're on their way."

Thea was just about to ask her brother why Blondie was still there, considering it was already two in the afternoon and his "dates" usually cleared out after breakfast, but a knock at the door signalled the arrival of the two men Oliver had asked about. He opened the door and greeted them both with a smile and a shout.

"Not so loud," Tommy protested. Thea glanced over and saw he looked a little more rumpled than usual, and there were definitely bags under his eyes.

Oliver smirked. "And how late were _you_ out last night?"

"Sun high. Birds singing."

Digg rolled his eyes. He held out a bag of Chinese takeout from the one place in town that Oliver actually deigned to order from and Tommy immediately made a grab for it. "Let's get some food into his hungover ass, and we can finally get started."

The four of them walked to the table in the dining room to eat. But just as they were about to dig in, the unnamed blonde emerged from the hallway, her purse over her shoulder. Thea couldn't help the wave of relief she felt that Blondie was _finally_ leaving.

"Hey, I'm going to run some errands," she told Oliver. "Do you need anything from the store while I'm out?"

Thea groaned inwardly. Jesus Christ, she was coming _back_? Could the woman not take a hint?

Oliver pursed his lips for a second. "I think we ran out of tissues."

She nodded. "I'll bring some back."

"Oh, hey, I don't think I've introduced you to my friends here." Oliver gestured to the table. "This is John Diggle and Tommy Merlyn. And you already met my sister, Thea. These are my business partners."

The blonde brightened. "Oh, right! For your restaurant. It's nice to meet you guys. I'm Felicity Smoak."

Digg eyed her speculatively. "Yeah. Nice meeting you, too."

"OK, well I better get going. I'll see you around." And with one last wave, she brushed out of the apartment, closing the door behind her.

The minute she was gone, everyone at the table rounded on Oliver with raised eyebrows.

"Felicity Smoak?" Digg asked lightly, a hint of amusement. "When did this start happening?"

Oliver frowned at his friend as he chewed on his food. Then the confusion cleared away when he understood what Digg was implying. "Oh, no! Felicity's not — we're not sleeping together. She's just my roommate."

That made Thea do a doubletake.

"Your _roommate_?" she demanded incredulously.

"Yeah. She moved in yesterday."

"Since when do _you_ have a roommate?"

"Since when do you _need_ a roommate?" Tommy added.

Oliver sighed. "You guys, we're starting a business together, and I promised myself I would do it on my own, with no help from Mom and Dad. That's going to require a lot of money, and it's going to require me to start saving. I thought I would start by getting a roommate."

Thea blinked in surprise. Huh.

It had been a while, but her brother finally managed to surprise her.

"So how did you find her?" Tommy asked.

"I put an ad out on Craigslist, and of all the replies I got hers was the one that least resembled a serial killer," Oliver shrugged as he continued to dig into his food.

"High bar," Digg deadpanned.

Oliver rolled his eyes in response. "I met her for coffee before I showed her the place. We talked about living habits and she genuinely seems like the kind of person who would be OK to live with. She's not going to cramp my style and I'm not going to cramp hers. And she's good for the rent. Besides, it's not like I'm planning on hanging out with her a lot. Once we get the restaurant up and running, I'm going to be super busy and she has a regular nine to five. I doubt I'll be seeing her at all."

Thea crossed her arms and glared at her brother. He was being awfully cavalier about his life and his safety, considering that he barely knew this woman and he also happened to be the son of the richest man on the West Coast. "Did you even run a background check on her?"

He rolled his eyes. "Of course I did, Speedy. I'm not an idiot."

She wasn't so sure about that.

"And?"

"She had one speeding ticket from college. Other than that, she's clean."

"Which is more than Ollie can say," Tommy snickered.

"You're one to talk," Oliver shot back.

Digg shook his head. "So you're living with this woman? A woman who's practically a stranger? A woman you _don't_ want to sleep with?"

"I don't want to sleep with her," Oliver insisted. "She's a roommate. _Just_ a roommate. Someone who sleeps down the hall and someone I only have to be mildly polite to. This isn't a big deal."

Everyone was quiet as they let that information sink in.

"So," Tommy began slowly. "If you're not going to sleep with her...you won't mind if I tried, right?"

Thea rolled her eyes. "Why don't we just finish eating so we can get started?"

A couple of hours later, the four of them were still arguing over potential properties when Felicity came back. She was saddled with a dozen canvas grocery bags, slung all over her slender arms.

"Hi, guys!" she said breathlessly as she dragged her haul toward the kitchen. Digg immediately stood to help her and she smiled gratefully at him. "Thank you, Mr. Diggle."

He smiled back at her. "Please. Call me Digg."

She started unloading all her groceries while Oliver stood from the table to grab a drink from the fridge. Just as he was turning around, he froze in his tracks.

"Felicity, what's this?" he asked, pointing to something on the counter.

Thea watched as the blonde glanced over her shoulder. "It's mac 'n' cheese," she answered in a tone that questioned his mental capabilities.

For some reason, that made Thea smile.

"You bought this blue box crap?" he demanded. "You know how many over processed ingredients are in this? It's not even real cheese."

Feeling the need to defend his roommate from an oncoming diatribe, Thea piped up. "Don't pay attention to him, Felicity. My brother's just a food snob."

"I'm not a food snob," Oliver protested. "I'm just very particular about what I put in my body."

"I've noticed," Felicity muttered. Then, much to Thea's amusement, the blonde's face turned bright red. "I said not noticed, right?"

"I like her already," Tommy said admiringly, and Thea couldn't help but feel a little bit the same way.

"Look, if you don't want to eat it, then don't," Felicity said, trying to power through her embarrassment. "No one's putting a gun to your head."

"That's not the point," Oliver protested. "I am a chef. I am a food _artist_. The mere presence of this shit in my apartment is offensive to me."

"Our apartment," she corrected. "It's our apartment now, mister. I'm paying rent and everything."

"Throw it out."

"No."

"You're going to die of a heart attack at fifty."

"If you're going to keep nagging at me like this, then I welcome the reprieve."

Digg returned to the table with three beers. Knocking the top off his, he sat back in his seat and watched with Tommy and Thea as the two roommates continued to bicker over the mac 'n' cheese.

"Looks like Queen bit off more than he could chew," he murmured before taking a sip of his beer.

"Twenty bucks says she moves out within the first month," Tommy said as he uncapped the two other beers and handed one to Thea.

"Thirty says she lasts at least three," Digg countered.

Thea pursed her lips as she watched her brother argue with Felicity. Sure, his expression was one of irritation and frustration but there wasn't any real heat in it. And Felicity, for as pointed as her words were, had a relatively calm face. She stood her ground. She didn't let Ollie's forceful personality bowl her over.

That was a good sign.

"Fifty says she'll call it quits after six months," Thea said.

Digg and Tommy both chuckled.

"You're on," Digg said.

The three of them clinked their bottles together.

* * *

 _One month_

Tommy Merlyn could probably count on one hand the number of times this year that he has willingly been awake before ten a.m. on a Saturday. But this was so important that he couldn't help it.

He had just managed to secure the property they wanted for their new restaurant at ten thousand dollars less than the asking price, and he wasn't about to wait for a decent hour to tell his best friend.

Tommy started pounding away the minute he reached Ollie's door. His excitement was too much to be contained to a single, polite knock.

The door flew open a few moments later to reveal a very annoyed-looking Felicity in Captain America pajamas and a thin white tank top.

"Do you have any idea what time it is?" she demanded.

He grinned at his best friend's very cute roommate. "Yes, I am aware, but I come bearing breakfast and good news."

She glared at him before stepping aside and let him in. The minute he crossed the threshold, Felicity made a beeline for the coffeemaker.

"You are _really_ grumpy in the mornings," Tommy commented, his smile still wide on his face.

"I didn't get a lot of sleep last night," she grumbled.

"Why not?"

She snorted. "I believe last night her name was Helena. Or that's the name he kept shouting over and over again."

Tommy chuckled in sympathy. Having been Ollie's wingman and sometimes lookout on multiple occasions, he had an unfortunate firsthand knowledge of just how loud his best friend could be in bed.

"Was she hot, at least?"

She shrugged. "I don't know, I was asleep when he came home. Not for long though."

He raised his eyebrows suggestively. "Well you know, if you ever wanted to get revenge on him, I would be a more-than-willing participant."

She rolled her eyes. "I'm far too sleep-deprived and under-caffeinated to deal with you right now."

He laughed, then reached into the bag of fast food breakfast he brought with him. "Here," he said, handing her one of the bagel sandwiches. "To make up for my unexpected presence so early on the Sabbath."

Her tired eyes lit up and she immediately snatched it from his outstretched hands.

"Big Belly breakfast," she sighed happily as she unwrapped the sandwich. "Oh, how I've missed you."

That made Tommy laugh again. "Ollie still being a food dictator?"

"Yes," she said savagely as she bit into the bagel. She sighed as she chewed, her eyes closed like she was in heaven. "And OK, so I'm a little grateful or whatever because I've lost five pounds since he started pestering me about what I eat, but sometimes a girl just needs a big, fat slice of chocolate cake once in a while, you know what I mean?"

"You said it, sister," he nodded solemnly.

Felicity ate some more of her bagel sandwich and Tommy watched in amusement as she savored each bite.

"So," she said around a mouthful of food, "what's the big, important news that couldn't wait for me to change out of my pajamas?"

"Well, Lissy, you know that I am always more than happy to help you out of your pajamas — " Felicity tossed a crumpled napkin at his head that he dodged last minute, " — but it's about the restaurant, and Ollie should really be the first one to hear the news."

Felicity eyed him thoughtfully as she continued chewing. "You know, I'm not a natural blonde. I dye it, actually."

Tommy frowned in confusion. "OK…" he trailed off. "And you felt the need to tell me that because...?"

"Because now you know a secret about me," she said with an adorable grin. "Which means you can now tell me _your_ secret."

That elicited a genuine laugh from him.

"It's not much of a secret if I'm going to tell everyone eventually," he pointed out with a smile.

She shrugged. "Oliver was going to find out about my hair color anyway. It's been a month now, and I'm due for a touch up, which reminds me! I have to pick up a box at the beauty store later today."

Tommy pursed his lips when she mentioned how long she'd been living with his best friend. "A month, huh?"

Well, damn.

"Yeah," she said through another mouthful of her bagel sandwich. "Why?"

"Nothing," he sighed.

It was just as well that he lost the bet — he liked having Felicity around, and he found that he didn't really want her to move out. Plus she kept Ollie on his toes, which was something his best friend desperately needed.

He kinda hoped that they would all be wrong, and not just for the simple fact that he wouldn't have to pay up at all.

"So, are you going to tell me or what, Merlyn?" she poked him in the side.

Tommy twitched involuntarily, which was his reaction any time anyone got too close to his ticklish spot. Unfortunately he saw a mischievous glint flicker in her eyes, and he was suddenly filled with dread.

"Felicity Smoak, don't you _dare_ ," he said in the sternest voice he could muster.

It did nothing to stall her. She set aside her breakfast and went on the attack, tickling him along his sides. Tommy made a thoroughly undignified sound as he leapt away from her, but she only closed in, which backed him into the corner of the kitchen.

"Felicity!" he gasped through his giggles. "Stop! Sto-oop!"

"Not until you tell me!" she laughed.

He was seconds away from succumbing to her torture when the sound of a clearing throat interrupted them. Felicity whirled around and they both noticed Oliver standing in the kitchen, his sweatpants hanging low on his hips and his arms crossed over his shirtless torso. And just one look at his expression told Tommy that he wasn't particularly thrilled with his best friend's presence at the moment.

"Good morning," he said, though his frown made it feel a little like the opposite. For some weird reason, Tommy felt a little guilty, though he didn't really have anything to feel guilty about.

"Morning," Felicity answered with a smile, seemingly oblivious to her roommate's stormy mood. "Would you like some coffee?"

Oliver didn't answer, but she moved toward the coffeemaker anyway.

While she busied herself with the mugs, Tommy cleared his throat. "Uh, hey, buddy," he smiled. "I came over because I had good news about the restaurant!"

Oliver raised an eyebrow, the darkness in his expression clearing a little. "Oh? And what might that be?"

Tommy's excitement returned in full force and he was practically bouncing on the balls of his feet again. "We are the official owners of the old steel factory in The Glades! _And_ , I even managed to knock off an additional ten K off the asking price, so we snatched that baby up for a bargain!"

Oliver's frown completely dissolved into a brilliant grin and Tommy felt relieved.

"That's great news!" he exclaimed, coming forward to give his best friend a hug, which Tommy returned.

"Yeah, that's awesome," Felicity beamed proudly as she handed him a cup of coffee. "Well done!"

"Thanks!" Tommy replied.

Oliver took his mug from Felicity, his face still lit up by his happiness. "This is so amazing. I can't believe it."

"You know, we should do something to celebrate," Felicity piped up. "What do you say to all of us going down to Table Salt for dinner tonight? All of us: you two, me, Digg and Thea. We can order a little bit of everything off the menu and you and Digg can see if there's anything you want to steal for your restaurant."

"That's a great idea," Tommy said enthusiastically. "I'll text Digg and Thea right now!"

Oliver opened his mouth like he was about to add something, but he was interrupted by a woman sticking her head around the corner.

"Oliver?" she called.

Tommy's eyebrows shot up his forehead as he exchanged a glance with Felicity. The other woman just shrugged as she ate another bite of her bagel.

"In here," Oliver waved. "You want some coffee?"

Felicity sighed, but turned around to pour another cup anyway. Tommy couldn't help but smile — she was a good morning-after friend.

The woman emerged from the room then, dressed in what Tommy could only assume had been her outfit from the night before. Her hair was a rat's nest and her makeup had clearly taken a severe beating, but he could see why Ollie had taken her home. He'd always had a thing for statuesque brunettes.

"Thanks," she said with a coy smile. But she stopped short when she spotted Tommy and Felicity standing next to him.

"Who are you?" she demanded flatly, her gaze trained on Felicity.

Completely unfazed, the blonde stepped forward with the coffee. "Hi, I'm Felicity. I'm Oliver's roommate. Nice to meet you. Helena, right?"

Oliver's head whipped around to stare at her in surprise. "How did you — ?"

"You might want to consider soundproofing your room before the next time," she said sardonically.

Helena turned beet red, but it did nothing to wipe that angry expression off her face. "I wasn't aware that Oliver had a roommate."

Felicity shrugged. "And I wasn't aware that Oliver had a kink for women calling him 'Daddy' in bed, but I guess we're all learning new things this morning."

Tommy snorted into his coffee while Oliver was suddenly overcome with a coughing fit.

"You realize you said that out loud, right?" Tommy told Felicity. If he had learned anything in the few weeks since she had moved in, it was that she had a penchant for letting errant thoughts escape the confines of her brain.

She just shrugged again. "Too early for my filter to be working at maximum capacity. And considering my filter is already faulty to begin with, things were bound to slip."

But Tommy caught the smirk she hid by lifting her mug to her lips. She totally did that on purpose.

Damn, he thought admiringly. Ice _cold_.

Helena, who had not taken her piercing glare off Felicity for even a second, set aside her undrunk coffee. "Well then," she said coolly. "I think I'm going to head out now." And with that, she sauntered over to Oliver and pressed herself against his body before planting what Tommy was sure was supposed to be a sultry kiss to his lips. In all reality, it looked more like she was trying to suck his soul out through his mouth.

"Call me later?" she purred.

Oliver shrugged uncomfortably. "Uh, yeah. Sure. Call you later."

With one last smirk sent in his direction, she walked out of the apartment.

The minute she was gone, it was like the air flow had been restored, and the three of them were breathing easily again.

"Do you really plan on calling her again?" Felicity asked. "Because if so, I'm going to need advanced warning. Buy some earplugs. Maybe book a hotel room so I can actually get some sleep."

Oliver sighed. "No, I'm definitely _not_ calling her again. And by the way, the whole 'Daddy' thing wasn't me. That was all her. That's her kink, not mine."

"Hey, no need to be ashamed of your kinks, Oliver," she said breezily. "We all have them."

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? And what are _yours_?"

She smirked. "Wouldn't _you_ like to know?"

" _I_ would," Tommy piped up.

Oliver looked abruptly annoyed.

Felicity polished off the last of her bagel and chugged the rest of her coffee. "Sorry, Tommy," she winked. "I guess you'll have to wait until next time to find out. In the meantime, since I am officially awake, this means I have to go run errands. Now that we're going to a fancy restaurant for dinner tonight, I should go pick up my dry cleaning."

"Don't forget about your hair dye," Tommy called after her as she walked out of the kitchen toward her bedroom.

"Thank you!" she called back over her shoulder.

When the two men were alone in the kitchen, Oliver turned toward his best friend with a frown. "So...are you interested in Felicity or something?" he asked in feigned nonchalance as he sipped his coffee.

Tommy's eyebrows flew up his forehead. "Why?" he asked a little suspiciously.

"No reason," he hedged. "I'm just...curious is all."

Tommy's lips twitched. "OK...well I'm not actively trying to get her in my bed."

His best friend's expression cleared, and he nodded like that settled everything.

Then, because he was Tommy and he just _had_ to feed Ollie a little bit of shit, he added, "But that's not to say if she _chose_ to climb into my bed that I'd kick her out of it."

Oliver rolled his eyes. "Somehow I don't see that happening."

Tommy shrugged. "You never know. She wouldn't be the first victim that fell prey to my rakish charm."

Oliver clapped his friend on the shoulder and fixed him with a mock serious look. "Tommy, no offense — you're my best friend and you're like a brother to me, but I've seen your game up close and personal for years, and I just gotta say that it's kinda lacking. In a lot of ways. A _lot_ of ways."

He just shook his head and laughed. "Whatever you say, 'Daddy.'"

* * *

 _Three months_

In high school, John Diggle was voted as Most Dependable.

He took a lot of pride in that title. No matter what job he ever took on, he was the first to show up and the last to leave. He went the extra mile when no one else did. When he was in the Army, his CO knew that if he needed a job done and done _right_ , he could always go to Sergeant Diggle and trust that it would get taken care of.

Sure, there were times when he got annoyed with his own dependableness. Being as responsible as he was in the middle of opening a restaurant with his best friends meant he ended up getting saddled with a lot of bullshit tasks, like picking up linens for the dining room and rushing to the site last minute to sign for the fancy stove Oliver had shipped in from Canada.

But every so often, his sense of responsibility was rewarded in truly awesome ways. Like when, for example, Oliver decided to take an entire day to try out recipes and ideas for the restaurant and invited John to taste all of said recipes because he was "the only person on the team who could give a solid, informed evaluation."

Free food? Guaranteed to be delicious? His mom always told him that only a fool turned down a free meal, and his mom sure didn't raise a fool.

He showed up to Oliver's apartment that Saturday morning armed with nothing but an empty stomach. But the minute he approached the door, the muffled sounds of raised voices made him raise his eyebrows.

A little wary, he knocked on the door, and when no one answered within the half a minute, he knocked on it again. Finally, after almost three minutes of waiting and listening to the faint argument, he tried opening the door anyway, and found out that it wasn't even locked.

The minute he walked through the door, the fight became a lot clearer.

"Get that plate away from me," Felicity said firmly. She was seated at the kitchen island, her laptop in front of her while she pushed Oliver away who was waving a stack of pancakes in front of her face.

"Please?" he begged. "Come on, Felicity! I need an opinion!"

"If you make me eat one more pancake, Oliver, I swear to God I will throw your whisk out the window and I won't even feel bad about it."

"This one's a completely different flavor."

"I don't care."

"I need an opinion!"

"Then wait for Digg to get here!"

The man cleared his throat at the sound of his name and the two of them whipped their heads around to see him standing in the dining room.

"Speak of the devil and he shall appear," John said with a slight smile on his face.

"Ha, see!" Felicity gestured triumphantly. "There, your official taste tester is here. Go force a hundred dozen pancakes down his throat and leave me alone."

He chuckled as he shrugged off his jacket and stepped toward the island counter. "I am more than ready to eat a hundred dozen pancakes," John said as he rubbed his hands in anticipation.

Oliver, though, still seemed a little ticked at his roommate because he set the plate down in front of John but shot Felicity an irritated glance. "If you didn't want to help with the tasting and evaluating then why are you even out here working? You could be doing all that computer stuff in your room, you know."

She rolled her eyes. " _You_ were the one who dragged me out of my bedroom and begged me to try your pancakes," she shot back, her fingers flying over her keyboard. "Which was fine for the first few plates, but I wasn't aware that you were turning this apartment into a some cursed IHOP in which all of the inhabitants would be doomed to eat six billion shortstacks every day for the rest of their lives."

John chuckled again as he cut into the stack in front of him and watched the two of them bicker. Ever since he met Oliver's roommate, he couldn't help but like her. She was smart, quick-witted and funny as hell. Plus, she wasn't afraid to tell Oliver where to stick it, which automatically made her a winner in his book.

"So?" Oliver asked, turning to John as he wiped his hands on the towel tied to his waist. "What do you think?"

"These are great," he answered, gesturing to the spiced apple pancakes in front of him. "These are for Sunday brunch, right?"

"Yeah. I was thinking we could change up the flavors of the pancakes with the seasons. These would obviously be for the fall."

John nodded as he took another bite. "Good thinking. I could probably come up with a really great maple bourbon cocktail to go with these."

The tasting and evaluating continued, and Felicity hadn't been exaggerating — Oliver really had made a ton of pancakes.

John discussed the pros and cons of each flavor with his business partner, talking about what cocktails he would pair with each and how they would be received by the Starling City diner crowd. About an hour into it, Oliver set down a new stack.

"All right, the last ones I wanted to try," he said. "Tell me what you think."

John took a bit and chewed thoughtfully. They were very clearly chocolate chip and peanut butter pancakes, and it tasted like biting into a soft Reese's cup.

Basically, it was the best pancake he'd ever tasted.

"Holy shit," John murmured. "If these aren't on the menu, I will pull my support from the whole project and take my business elsewhere."

That made Oliver laugh as he took his own fork and speared off a bite. "You think? It's not too rich? Too thick?"

John shook his head. "Just the right amount of rich and thick. A bitter cocktail would offset it nicely, maybe coffee? Kahlua, I think."

Oliver continued chewing thoughtfully. Then he cut off another bite and waved the fork in front of Felicity's face.

"Come on," he begged. "One bite. The _last_ pancake I'll make you eat. Please?"

Felicity shot him a long-suffering look, but eventually acquiesced and opened her mouth. He dipped his fork into it and she took the bite with the air of a haggard, henpecked housewife.

Which, now that John thought about it, she probably was.

"So?" Oliver asked as she chewed. "What do you think?"

She nodded absently, her eyes once again on her laptop. "Great. Wonderful. Amazing. The best pancake I've ever tasted."

His face fell. "Is that it?"

"Oliver, what do you want from me? It's a freaking pancake! Just like the five plates you made me eat this morning were all pancakes! After a while, they all just sort of blend together."

He sighed and started grumbling under his breath as he took away the dirty plates.

John glanced over at her computer. "What are you working on anyway?"

"Don't ask," Oliver called over his shoulder as he stood at the sink and rinsed off the plates. "Once you get her started, she'll never shut up."

John fully expected Felicity to shoot something snarky right back at him, but much to his surprise, her eyes only went round and her breaths started getting shallower and shallower.

"Felicity?" he asked in concern. "Hey, are you OK?"

She shook her head frantically, pointing to her throat. Her face and hands were steadily turning redder and the panic was growing in her eyes.

"Are you choking?" John asked in a sharper tone when he realized she stopped breathing altogether.

She shook her head again, then started banging her palm on the counter.

That caught Oliver's attention. He whipped his head around and his eyes widened. "Felicity!" he shouted, rushing to her side. "What's going on?"

John racked his brain, trying to figure out what had happened. She'd just taken a bite of some pancakes, but she'd been eating pancakes all day...plus there was nothing wrong with him, and he'd eaten the same thing — chocolate and peanut butter pancakes.

Then it clicked.

He turned to face the tiny blonde. "Felicity, are you allergic to nuts?" he demanded.

The poor girl squeezed her eyes shut as she nodded hard.

A stream of curses tumbled out of Oliver's mouth. "Son of a bitch, Felicity, I'm _so_ sorry!"

But John didn't care about his apologies at the moment. "Do you have an EpiPen?"

She nodded again.

"Where is it?"

She pointed to her purse on the dining room table and John immediately ran to grab it, dumping out the contents and searching for the medicine. When he finally found it, he rushed back to Felicity and pushed the hem of her skirt up.

"Do you know how to use that?" Oliver demanded.

Instead of answering him, John uncapped the tube and jammed the needle into her thigh and let the medication course through her. Seconds later, the sweet sound of Felicity sucking shallow gasps echoed through the apartment and both John and Oliver's shoulders slumped in relief.

"Oh thank God," Oliver sighed.

"Thank you, Digg," she gasped as she clutched her stomach.

"No problem," he answered, rubbing her shoulder comfortingly. "Not going to lie, baby girl, you really had me scared there for a second."

She smiled feebly back at him. "Not going to lie, Digg, I think I might have scared myself too."

After that, Oliver insisted on taking her to the emergency room just to make sure she really was all right, and she only put up a minimal protest. John drove them, and he sat with Oliver in the waiting room while Felicity got checked out.

"God, I feel like the biggest ass in the world," the younger man muttered to himself as he leaned forward and rubbed his hands over his face. "I made her eat peanut butter pancakes and nearly got her killed in the process."

"Hey, it's not your fault," John said gently. "You didn't know she was allergic to nuts."

"Yeah, but I should have," Oliver insisted. "I'm her roommate! I've been living with her for three months, _and_ I'm a chef. I should have known if she had any life-threatening allergies."

John paused, then frowned at him. "Has it really been three months?"

"Yeah," Oliver sighed, rubbing his face again. "You don't think she's going to move out because of this do you?"

As much as part of him wanted her to move out (just because it would be an easy sixty bucks and he could use the money at the moment considering a large chunk of his monthly salary was going toward an as-of-yet opened restaurant), a much larger part of him really hoped Felicity would stay.

And judging by the look on his friend's face, Oliver did too.

"I'd say it's fifty-fifty at this point," John said with a shit-eating grin. "She's a smart girl, and smart girls would know better than to keep living with a guy who nearly got them killed."

Oliver groaned and buried his face in his hands again.

"But," John added with a laugh, "she's also a tough girl. And tough girls don't leave because of something as silly as almost dying of a nut allergy."

The younger man looked up and glared at him. "Thanks for the pep talk," he muttered sarcastically.

"Any time, man. I've always got your back."

A half hour later, Felicity walked up to the two of them with a smile on her face, which John took to be a good sign. "Clean bill of health," she reported. "He suggested I take a Benadryl for any lingering side effects of the allergic attack, but other than that I'm fine."

Oliver let out a sigh of relief, and John swore it was like the first breath he'd heard from his friend since Felicity had eaten the pancake.

"I'm so sorry," he blurted out. "I'm so, _so_ sorry. I should have known, I should have asked you when you moved in. That never should have happened."

"Hey," she said softly, reaching over to place a hand on his arm. "It's not your fault. I should have told you. Besides, I'm still alive, thanks to Digg here."

She nudged the man with her elbow and he grinned back down at her.

"So no harm, no foul," she concluded.

Oliver still looked a little forlorn. "Does this mean you're not going to move out?"

She tapped her chin, pretending to think about it. "Hmm...well, as long as you promise to stop force feeding me pancakes, I think we'll be OK."

The smile that took over Oliver's face was so blinding that it made John wonder what exactly had been going through his friend's head during the allergic reaction. It also made him wonder whether Oliver's feelings for his roommate were as platonic as he insisted.

John didn't voice any of these ponderings out loud. But two weeks later, when he came back to the apartment for another tasting and evaluating session, he noticed that all the cabinets in the apartment were curiously devoid of any and all nut products.

And a month later, when Oliver presented the team with the first draft of the brunch menu, there wasn't a single option for pancakes.

* * *

 _Six months_

They say that you should never get into business with your friends.

Thea Queen thought there should really be an addendum for going into business with your family.

Oliver had been acting like a real pill for close to three weeks now, and it was getting so bad that even the perpetually optimistic Tommy Merlyn could hardly stand to be near him.

It wasn't like he didn't have a reason or anything. They were opening a _freaking restaurant_ for crying out loud, and since Oliver was going to be the chef, it almost felt like everyone in town was waiting for him to fail. Even their own parents had been dropping gentle hints about how he would always have a place at Queen Consolidated — the subtext, of course, being that once the restaurant failed he'd need something to do.

So yeah. Oliver was venturing out kind of on his own for the first time in his life and there was a lot of pressure. That was bound to put anyone under an insane amount of stress.

But the stress didn't give him license to be a dickbag to everyone in his life.

They could all hear Oliver barking from the kitchen. Even over all the loud kitchen noises, over the sizzling and the chopping and the sink running, everyone could hear him chewing out his brand-new kitchen staff over everything, from not cutting fine enough slices to letting shit burn.

Thea sighed and rolled her eyes as she turned back to Tommy and Digg. They were sitting at the lone table in the future dining room, trying to make a million decisions that Ollie impatiently declared he didn't have time for. That passive-aggressive remark was enough to make her seriously contemplate painting the bathrooms bubblegum pink, just to spite him.

"This is starting to get out of control," Digg grumbled. "He called me incompetent the other day when I accidentally left something off the zoning application with the city."

Tommy nodded. "He called me an irresponsible when I forgot to pick up the chairs from the supply store."

Digg snorted. "Not sure how far off he was with that one," he muttered more to himself than anything. But that didn't stop Tommy from scowling at him.

Thea sighed and rubbed her forehead. "I know. We need to talk to him, but I don't know how."

A bang came from behind the kitchen doors and the three of them jumped. The loud noise was soon followed by Oliver's muted screams.

"I vote we tie him to a chair and let his kitchen staff yell at him," Tommy said sardonically, his eyes still trained at the closed doors.

"I don't think they'd restrain themselves to just yelling at him," Digg pointed out.

At that moment, the sound of a pair of heels on concrete floors echoed through the empty space and Thea turned in her chair to see Felicity walking toward them, a tablet in her hands.

"Hey," she called. "I wanted to stop by after work to get started on the POS system. Do you know where — "

But before she could finish her inquiry, the doors to the kitchen came swinging open as a sobbing young man fled, clutching his knife kit close to him as he ran. In the brief moments as the door swung back closed, they could hear Oliver shouting, "DOES ANYONE WANT TO JOIN HIM OR HAVE THE REST OF YOU FINALLY GOT YOUR HEADS OUT OF YOUR ASSES LONG ENOUGH TO WORK?"

Everyone at the table let out a collective sigh, but Felicity simply narrowed her eyes.

"All right, that's it," she muttered. She dropped the tablet onto the table before marching toward the kitchen and disappearing behind the swinging kitchen doors. Two seconds later, she re-emerged, dragging Oliver by the wrist.

"Felicity, I'm in the middle of something," he snapped.

"I don't care," she shot back. "You have been stomping around like a bloviated dictator for weeks now. At the rate you're going you'll have scared off any person willing to be on your kitchen staff long before the restaurant even opens. That is, if your business partners haven't strangled you first."

Thea's eyebrows shot up her forehead, and a quick look around the table showed her that she wasn't the only one surprised at Felicity's words.

Oliver, however, didn't want to listen to it. "I don't have time — "

"To what?" she cut him off. "To act like a human being? To treat the people around you with the respect they deserve? Is that what you don't have time for, Oliver? Because let me assure you, you do. You have plenty of time. In fact, it doesn't take that much time at all. But no, you've been spending your time being a grumpy asshat, so of course that doesn't leave any time for anything else!"

He rolled his eyes. "You dragged me out of there to yell at me because I've been grumpy? I've been under a lot of stress, Felicity! The restaurant is supposed to open in a few months!"

"Oh, _believe_ me, I know. It's all I've heard about for three weeks now. All you've talked about is this restaurant and the opening and how much pressure you're under. But if you opened your eyes and looked around, you'd realize that you're not the only one who's feeling it."

In that moment, Thea felt nothing but a rush of warmth and gratitude toward her older brother's roommate. It was almost hard to believe that she didn't even like her when they first met.

"What are you talking about?" he demanded.

"I'm talking about your friends!" she shouted, pointing a finger at the three of them at the table behind him. "You don't realize that they are bending over backwards to help you! They _know_ how important this is to you, which is why they are here on a _Friday night_ trying to decide what fucking color to paint the bathroom when Lord knows they could be doing literally anything else. It's why Tommy turned the other cheek when you called him irresponsible. It's why Digg ignored it when you called him incompetent. It's why Thea, _your own damn sister_ , hasn't murdered you yet for telling her the interior doesn't matter!"

The three people around the table shuffled in embarrassment. She'd hit the nail on the head, and the three of them felt a little weird but also incredibly grateful to have her stand up for them.

Thea looked up and saw her brother staring at her. She saw a flash of guilt cross Ollie's face and she realized, with some irony, that it was the first non-angry or non-stressed emotion she'd seen in him in three weeks.

"Look," Felicity continued, her voice softer than earlier, and he turned to face her again. "I know that you're under insane pressure. I know that this is a big deal for you and that it feels like everyone in this city is waiting for you to screw up because all they see is Ollie Queen, former billionaire playboy who peed on a cop and couldn't get his shit together for years. But believe me when I tell you, there are people around you that want you to succeed and are willing to do anything to make it happen."

Oliver closed his eyes and he suddenly looked so... _tired_. Almost as tired as Thea felt.

"I just don't want to screw up again," he said quietly.

"I know," Felicity murmured. She reached forward and squeezed his hand, and to Thea's eternal surprise, he didn't pull away.

The two of them stood like that for a long time, and watching it made Thea feel like she was invading on an intimate moment. She glanced away, like she was trying to give them their privacy, and she saw Digg and Tommy doing the same.

Finally, a sigh alerted them that they were finished, and Oliver walked up to the three of them at the table.

"Hey guys," he began. They all watched him warily, waiting for the next words to come out of his mouth. "I guess I just...I'm sorry if I've been an asshole to you in the past few weeks."

" _If_?" Tommy scoffed.

The corner of Ollie's lips quirked upward and he continued. "OK, so I have been a big asshole to you these last few weeks. And you don't deserve it. None of you do. I've been stressed and I was taking it out on you, and I'm sorry."

Digg, who had been leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed, pursed his lips as he considered Oliver's words. The three of them exchanged glances, silent acknowledgment coursing through all of them.

"Apology accepted," Thea began, "on one condition."

Oliver winced and it made Thea grin a little. "And that is…?"

"You buy us all a round at Floyd's," she finished.

Her brother's shoulders slumped in relief, and for the first time in a long time, she saw a smile cross his face. "Deal. Let me go dismiss the kitchen staff and we'll head out."

Digg shook his head as Oliver walked back toward the kitchen. "That's assuming they hadn't all bolted the minute Felicity dragged his ass out of there."

The woman in question smiled approvingly as he walked toward the kitchen, then turned toward the three restaurateurs at the table. "Now that that's taken care of, I can do the POS system before I head home and crash."

"You're not coming with us?" Digg asked.

She shook her head. "No, I'm seriously exhausted. The minute I get this started, I'm going home to crash. Raincheck?"

"Sure," Thea said, standing up to hug her. Then quietly, she whispered in her ear, "Thank you."

Felicity pulled away to give her a brilliant smile. "Any time. Have fun."

And with that, she turned on her heel and walked toward the back, where the office was.

Later that night at Floyd's, armed with nothing but a bottle of his favorite microbrew, Oliver sat in his chair and listened with a grimace as his three business partners relived the past three weeks of his complete douchebaggery.

"OK, OK, I get it," he insisted after Tommy just recalled the incident from two weeks ago when he made their contractor — a full grown man in his forties who used to serve in the Marines — start to tear up in front of all his men.

And surprisingly, Thea thought to herself, Tommy hadn't even been exaggerating all that much.

"What's the point of reliving all of this anyway?" Oliver grumbled.

Digg chuckled as he took a swig of his beer. "Think of it as aversion therapy. We bombard you with examples of your shittiest behavior and it makes you so ashamed that you never do it again."

He grumbled again as he emptied his bottle. "Another round?" he asked the table.

The three of them nodded and Oliver stood from his seat and walked toward the bar.

"So what do you think?" Digg said once his friend was out of earshot. "You think he's really cured for good?"

Thea snorted. "Well maybe not for _good_. He'll probably yell at his kitchen staff more than they deserve, but at the least I'm pretty sure he'll leave us alone."

Tommy nodded his agreement. "That was kind of awesome how Felicity put him in his place though. I didn't think she had it in her."

Digg scoffed. "Are you kidding? Look, Felicity Smoak may look like a tiny little blonde on the outside, but she's a force of nature on the inside. And Oliver may be the most stubborn son of a bitch you've ever met, but he's also not an idiot, and when a force of nature is standing there getting ready to bowl you over, even _he_ knows better than to try and meet it head on."

Thea chuckled at Digg's description. As close as it was, though, it didn't feel like it completely hit the nail on the head.

"What do you guys think is _really_ going on between the two of them?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" Tommy asked.

"I mean," she began, "do you think they're _just_ friends and roommates? Because believe me, the only person I've ever seen Oliver really listen to like that is our mom, and even then it was kind of touch and go."

Digg pursed his lips and crossed his arms as his eyes wandered to the man himself, standing at the bar and waiting for the hassled bartender to notice him.

"You know, I've asked myself that question," he nodded speculatively. "After Felicity's accidental allergic reaction, he was absolutely beside himself. You should have been there — I've never seen anyone so guilty in my entire life."

"That and he always gets that kind of twitch in his eye whenever one of the guys on the kitchen staff so much as _looks_ at Felicity," Thea added. "Like he's just...itching to punch them out or something."

Tommy frowned. "I don't think that's indicative of anything," he insisted. "Oliver's probably just like, trying to look out for her. Like he'd look out for you, Speedy. I don't think he likes her or anything. Now, if you want to talk about _Felicity_ , that's something else entirely."

Thea frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Weren't you there earlier at the restaurant? After she chewed him out, they were just staring at each other afterwards, and she was holding his hand and she was staring at him like he was the only person in the world."

Digg shook his head. "Nah, man, I think you're wrong. I think you've got it the other way around — I think Oliver's secretly got it bad for his roommate, but Felicity just sees him as a friend. A _good_ friend, but a friend nonetheless."

"And _I_ say you're cracked. It's obvious to anyone with eyes that Felicity's got the hots for him."

Digg rolled his eyes. "You want to put your money where your mouth is?"

Tommy straightened in his seat, his eyes twinkling. "I'm listening."

"Fifty bucks says that Oliver tries to make a move on his roommate and she turns him down," Digg said confidently.

Tommy scoffed. "One hundred says _Felicity's_ the one who makes a move on him and he runs like the scared chicken shit he is."

The two men turned to Thea who bit her lip.

If she had to be honest, she could see both of those scenarios coming true. She knew her brother, and she was starting to know more about Felicity, and she could see the both of them being frightened of their feelings for one another. And she wasn't under any delusions like Digg and Tommy were — she could see that their feelings were obviously mutual.

But was she willing to put her own money on the line for it?

She took a deep breath. "Two hundred says one of them makes a move and they realize that they're actually in love with each other and they live happily ever after."

Tommy grinned and Digg smirked.

"You're on," they said together.


	2. Chapter 2

_Nine months_

The thing about being in a group wager with hundreds of dollars on the line means that anything goes.

What's that saying? All's fair in love and war?

Well this just happened to be both.

"I don't know about this, Tommy," McKenna said as she and Tommy walked up to Oliver's apartment. "I mean, I wasn't invited."

"I invited you," he reminded her. "Besides, Ollie will be excited to see you. It's been a long time." Tommy grinned a little and leaned forward to whisper, "Don't tell him I told you this, but he used to have a _huge_ crush on you in high school."

McKenna's eyes widened. "No he didn't. Oliver _Queen_? _The_ Oliver Queen?"

"Yes he did!" Tommy winked. "So trust me when I tell you, you have nothing to worry about."

"But wait," she called out, grabbing Tommy's shoulder to stop him from knocking. "Didn't you say he's living with someone? A girl?"

Tommy waved a dismissive hand. "Yeah, but it's totally platonic. They're just living together as roommates. Nothing going on between the two of them."

She raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Seriously? You're telling me that _Oliver Queen_ is platonically living with some woman? Are you sure we're talking about the same Oliver Queen?"

He turned to McKenna and put his hands on her shoulders. "McKenna, trust me: there is absolutely _nothing_ going on between Felicity and Oliver. You are more than free to flirt with the man. In fact, I encourage it."

She still looked like she wasn't quite sure of the whole situation, but she didn't say anything further. So Tommy took that as an invitation to finally knock on the door.

"Just smile," he told her. "Smile and be yourself. You've got a winning personality, Mac."

"I'm going to punch you in the face, Tommy Merlyn," she hissed under her breath.

The door swung open a second later and revealed Felicity in a lovely royal blue cocktail dress and black heels. Her hair was down from its customary ponytail the ends of her golden waves dipping just below her shoulders.

Her painted pink lips spread into a smile and her blue eyes lightened from behind her glasses. "Tommy!" she greeted happily as she stepped forward to give him a hug. "We're so glad you could make it!"

Tommy smiled and hugged her back. "Of course I made it," he quipped. "I wasn't about to pass up on an opportunity to make Ollie cook for me." When he let her go, he gestured to the woman standing next to him. "And this is McKenna Hall. She went to high school with Ollie and me. Mac, this is Felicity Smoak, Ollie's roommate."

"Hi," Felicity said with a bright smile and a proffered hand. "It's really nice to meet you."

"You too," McKenna said with a nervous smile. "I'm sorry about crashing your dinner party, by the way. Tommy invited me last minute and he said it would be OK."

"Of course it's OK! Any friend of Tommy and Oliver's is always welcome here," she insisted as she stepped back from the door. "Come on in."

"Thank you," McKenna said a little shyly. "I love your dress, by the way. That is a gorgeous color on you."

Felicity's grin widened as she took their coats. "Thank you so much. You are the sweetest."

Tommy and McKenna stepped into the apartment, to see that everyone else had already arrived. Digg was sitting on the loveseat with his wife, Lyla. Thea and Roy, a member of Oliver's kitchen staff, were sitting on the couch, and the four of them were talking and laughing while holding glasses of wine.

Meanwhile, the sounds from the kitchen made it apparent where Oliver was. And just what kind of mood he was in.

"I see that Roy is here," Tommy muttered under his breath to Felicity.

She smirked. "Yeah. But at least Oliver's taking it out on the cutting board. So maybe there's hope for his growth after all."

As Felicity went to go hang their coats in the closet, Tommy stepped toward the living room with his hand at McKenna's shoulder.

"Hey, guys. This is McKenna Hall. McKenna, that's John Diggle, Lyla Michaels, Roy Harper, and you already know Thea Queen."

"Mac!" Thea beamed as she got up the couch to hug the other woman. "Oh my goodness, it's been so long since I've seen you! How are you?"

McKenna grinned as Thea led her back to the couch. "I'm good. It's really great to see you guys again. You've turned into such a grownup, Thea!"

"Mac here used to babysit me when she and Ollie were in high school," Thea told everyone in the living room. "I adored her. I used to follow her around everywhere."

"That's so sweet," Felicity smiled as she walked toward the living room with two glasses of wine she handed to Tommy and McKenna. "When was the last time you all were together?"

"I don't know," McKenna admitted. "It's been so long. I think it might have been graduation?"

"Well that is far too long," Tommy declared. Then he raised his wineglass toward everyone in the living room and called out, "To reunions."

Everyone else followed suit and took a sip of their wine.

"So," Thea began, turning to McKenna. "What have you been up to since high school?"

"Uh, well the usual," she said. "College, then police academy...I graduated last month, actually. Now I'm a beat cop with SCPD."

"Wow," Felicity intoned, her eyes wide and admiring behind her glasses. "That's so cool."

McKenna's smile slowly grew less nervous and more genuine. "Yeah, I guess it is. I like it a lot. Mostly a lot of citation writing so far, but my officers say I have a real future at the department. I really want to be a detective one day."

Felicity was about to open her mouth to say something, but Oliver chose that moment to pop out of the kitchen into the living room.

"Felicity, I — "

The presence of a new person in his apartment stopped his words in his mouth. His eyes widened and recognition flashed across them.

"McKenna Hall?" he said in disbelief as he took a step forward. "Is that you?"

McKenna's lovely tan skin darkened with a faint blush as she stood up to greet her old friend. "Ollie," she smiled, her arms wide open in a hug. "It's so good to see you again."

"Wow," Oliver answered as he stepped into her embrace. "It's good to see you, too. You look great, by the way. I mean, you always looked great. You just...well, I guess the years really worked for you."

Tommy smirked into his wineglass. This plan was going much smoother than he anticipated.

McKenna grinned in obvious pleasure. "Thank you. I could say the same for you. I really like your new hairstyle. It suits you much better than that long hair you were sporting for the longest time. Makes you look more mature and rugged."

"Well that was what I was going for," he joked.

Felicity's eyebrows shot up her forehead before she cleared her throat. "Uh, Oliver? Did you need me for something?"

Oliver tore his gaze away from his old friend and turned back to Felicity with a start, like he just realized that she was there. "Uh, right. Right! Yeah, I did. I, um, need your help in the kitchen with something. Could you lend me a hand?"

She frowned. "You're asking my help? Seriously? Normally you don't let me set foot in your kitchen."

"Desperate times call for desperate measures."

With a roll of her eyes, she leaned forward to set her wineglass down and get up from her seat.

"Um, I could help, too?" McKenna said as she stepped forward and Tommy had to stop himself from fist pumping in triumph. "I'm kind of an unexpected addition. The least I can do is help."

Ollie looked clearly pleased with her offer. "You don't mind?"

"Not at all," McKenna smiled.

"Oh, great! Thank you, because Felicity's a complete disaster in the kitchen."

Tommy smirked as he watched Felicity's expression turned into a scowl, but she didn't say anything. She just followed the two of them into the kitchen.

Once the three of them were gone, Digg and Thea both turned to shoot suspicious glares at Tommy, who all of a sudden was struggling to look as innocent as possible.

"What?" he asked.

"McKenna? Seriously?"

Thea Queen was the only person Tommy knew who could make a name sound like an accusation.

"What?" he repeated. "She's an old friend!"

"My ass!" Digg hissed. "You're trying to throw the bet!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," he scoffed. "I'm not doing _anything_ to throw the bet. I just thought that Ollie and McKenna would like to reconnect after so many years, and it turns out I was right."

"Oh, you are so full of shit!" Thea rolled her eyes.

Roy looked between the three of them in confusion. "Hold on, I think I missed something. What's happening here?"

Thea turned to her boyfriend. "My brother's in love with his roommate — "

"Correction," Tommy interrupted. " _Felicity's_ in love with your brother."

Thea rolled her eyes and continued. "OK, _Digg_ thinks Ollie's in love with Felicity but she doesn't feel the same way, and he bet us fifty bucks that he makes a move on her and she turns him down. But _Tommy_ thinks that Felicity's in love with Ollie but he doesn't feel the same way, and he bet us one hundred bucks that she'll tell him and he'll be too scared and run away."

Roy's eyes widened in understanding. "So you," he pointed at Tommy, "brought McKenna to flirt with Oliver to make Felicity jealous and force her to make a move."

"I did no such thing," Tommy smirked.

"You're a dirty liar, Merlyn," Digg scowled.

"What does it matter to you?" he shot back. "You're the one who thinks Felicity doesn't feel anything for Ollie! If you're right, then it won't matter, will it?"

"So you _are_ trying to throw the bet!" Thea pointed at him accusingly.

Tommy rolled his eyes. "Fine, whatever. But if either of you thought I was going to pass up an opportunity to trick you two fools out of a hundred bucks, then you were sorely mistaken. May I also point out to Mr. Diggle that Ollie and Mac are hitting it off beautifully, thus proving my point that he feels nothing for his roommate."

Digg narrowed her eyes. "Oh. So you want to play it like that, huh?"

Thea shook his head. "You just opened up a whole new can of worms, Tommy. You better get ready."

He smirked as he took a sip of his wine. "Bring it on."

Lyla chose that moment to interject.

"So wait a minute," she insisted. "If Tommy's line is that Felicity's in love with Oliver and Johnny's line is that Oliver's in love with Felicity…"

She turned to Thea.

"What's _your_ line?"

"That they're both in love with each other and they'll end up together and live happily ever after," she answered with a sniff.

Digg and Tommy both rolled their eyes. Thea had proven over and over again that she had a good head for business, but in this instance, Tommy seriously questioned her judgment.

"This isn't a Disney movie, Thea, this is Oliver Queen's love life," he reminded her.

She fixed him with a withering glare. "I'm aware of that, Tommy. I just happen to have more faith in my brother than you do."

He sighed. Thea was entitled to her own opinion, but at this point he just started to feel bad for taking her money so easily.

Ten minutes later, McKenna, Oliver and Felicity emerged from the kitchen and walked toward the dining room, each bearing serving plates and bowls of food. Tommy smiled to himself as he saw McKenna and Oliver laughing together about something while Felicity's brightly painted lips thinned into a grim line.

"Dinner's ready," Oliver called. "Come on, the sooner we're all seated, the sooner we can dig in."

The five other guests got up from their seats and made for the dining room, which was laid out beautifully with a huge hunk of pot roast, sauteed green beans and Digg's favorite maple-glazed carrots.

"This looks incredible," Lyla said with wide eyes as she sat down to the magnificent feast. "I think I might have to hire you to cook my next Thanksgiving meal, Oliver."

He shot Lyla a proud smile as he took his seat at the head of the table. Tommy gently directed McKenna to take the seat right next to Oliver's, while Tommy claimed the seat on her other side.

"Did you really cook all of this?" McKenna asked with an impressed voice.

He chuckled. "Why do you sound so surprised?"

McKenna laughed, warm and soft. "Well it doesn't exactly jive with the Ollie Queen I remember from high school, you know? You were always too busy getting into trouble to pay attention to anything in home ec class."

Oliver chuckled. "Oh, I still got into plenty of trouble in culinary school. It was just a different kind of trouble."

"Oh really?" McKenna said, a definite flirtatious note entering her tone. "And praytell, what kind of trouble was that?"

"The kind that left me without eyebrows for a month," he joked. "My first attempt at flambe didn't go all that well."

McKenna threw her head back and laughed. Out of the corner of Tommy's eye, he could see Felicity on the other end of the table, keeping her eyes focused solely on her carrots and refusing to look up.

"I wish you'd taken pictures," Thea piped up.

"Don't worry, I'm sure Oliver will find a way to burn his eyebrows off when we open the restaurant," Digg chuckled into his wine.

McKenna cocked her head to the side as she looked between Digg and Oliver. "You guys are opening a restaurant?"

"The four of us are," Tommy told her, pointing between himself, Thea, Digg and Oliver. "Roy here's on the kitchen staff, and Lyla's mostly been keeping Digg sane while he goes through all the craziness of the opening. And of course, we can't forget our tech genius, Felicity. She built our POS system and our inventory programs from scratch."

"That's so incredible," she said. "No offense, Ollie, but I don't think any of our graduating class would have expected this. I think we all kind of thought you were still dicking around and peeing on cop cars."

If it hadn't disappeared as quickly as it came, Tommy would have sworn that he imagined it, but the minute those words left McKenna's lips, a flash of regret and disappointment flickered in Oliver's eyes.

But before Tommy could take a second look, someone interrupted him from the other end of the table.

"Oliver's an excellent chef," Felicity told McKenna, her tone just a titch cooler than it had been earlier. "He's one of the best chefs on the West Coast."

McKenna turned back to the man in question, whose charming grin had come back. "Is that so?"

He shrugged modestly. "I think that's an exaggeration. But my mentors said I have promise."

Tommy saw out of the corner of his eye that Felicity's knuckles had gone white as she gripped her fork, but he hid his smile behind his wineglass.

"So when does this restaurant open?" McKenna asked. "And can I reserve a table for opening night? Or will there be some insanely long waiting list to even get in?"

"Oh, I'm sure we can work something out," Oliver told her with a wink.

Tommy glanced down at the other end of the table to see Felicity surreptitiously rolling her eyes, and it was all he could do to keep himself from cackling.

The rest of the dinner party went by without incident. After dessert and coffee, McKenna announced that she had to duck out the rest of the evening's festivities.

"Since I'm a rookie, I still have to work the early shift," she told her companions with a grimace. "But I'm so glad I came. It was the best food and company I've had in a long time."

"Yeah, it was great to meet you," Digg answered with a polite smile. "When Merlyn was the one who invited you, I have to admit I was pretty skeptical. But I guess he doesn't associate with _just_ troublemakers."

Tommy scowled at the insinuation but everyone else at the table laughed.

Then she turned to Oliver with a coy smile. "And it was _really_ nice to get to reconnect with you, Ollie."

"Same here, Mac," he grinned. "It's good to see you doing so well with your life. Would you like me to walk you out?"

"I would love that."

The two of them got up from the table and walked out of the living room toward the front door. Once Oliver shut it behind him, Felicity downed the rest of her wine.

"I'm going to get the dishes started," she announced in a strained voice, as she got up and brought her plate and glass with her.

Tommy shot a smirk at Digg and Thea who both rolled their eyes. "I'll help," he announced, grabbing his own plate and glass and following her into the kitchen.

When he crossed the threshold, he saw her standing in front of the sink. The stiffness in her shoulders hinted just what kind of mood she was in.

"You OK, Lis?" he asked.

"Yeah," she answered, not bothering to turn around and look at him. "I'm fine."

"Liar," he smirked as he set the plate and glass down and leaned on the counter next to her. "You're bothered about something, so let me guess...Ollie and McKenna?"

She flinched, like the accusation he lobbed at her was a tangible object that hit her square in the back.

"No," she said, though her stormy expression belied the truth. "What would make you think that?"

"Oh, I don't know." Tommy tapped his chin, pretending like he was thinking hard. "Probably because you'd start chugging your wine every time they flirted at dinner. And you looked like you needed something much stronger than wine every time he laughed at something she'd say."

Her jaw clenched as she took the sponge and started scrubbing out one of Oliver's pots. "I wasn't...look, it's not like that, OK?"

"Not like what?" he asked, feigning ignorance.

"It's not like what you're implying. I'm not...I'm not _jealous_ ," she scoffed. "I'm hardly jealous."

What a terrible liar, he thought.

"If it's not jealousy, then what is it?"

Felicity's expression fell slightly as she looked down at the soapy pot in her hands. "It's just...when she made that crack about Oliver being a troublemaker in high school and how she thought he'd still be dicking around, I felt so...so _angry_."

Of all the answers Tommy expected, it certainly wasn't _that_ one.

"I know that it's been forever since she's seen him, so I'm not being entirely fair to her," she continued, her eyes still on the sink. "But he's changed so much. He's not that guy anymore. He's different. He's actually working so hard to make something of himself, and he's kind and generous to everyone in his life, even the people who expect the worst of him. And I just get...I get so upset and defensive when people judge him for the person he _used_ to be and not the person he is _now_."

For the first time that evening, Tommy felt genuinely shocked.

Felicity didn't just have feelings for his best friend. She was straight up in love with him. And she had every right to be in love with him, because she genuinely knew him.

"But whatever," she sighed. "If they start dating, she'll find out pretty soon that he's changed. It's kind of hard to miss."

And for the second time in less than ten seconds, she'd thrown him for a loop.

"Wait," he objected. "You're just going to let him date her?"

Felicity shot him a confused look. "What are you talking about? I'm not 'letting' him do anything. Oliver Queen is his own person and he can date whoever he wants. I have no say in that."

He sputtered. "But you're not, like — you're not going to tell him how you feel? You're just going to let him date McKenna while you're off to the side, pining for him?"

The blood rushed to her cheeks, but she tried to hide her embarrassment with a roll of her eyes. "Excuse me," she huffed, "I do not _pine_."

"You know what I mean," he insisted.

She avoided answering for a long time as she scrubbed the pot completely clean. When she was finally finished, she looked up with a sad smile and a shrug.

"You've known him your entire life. In high school, do you think Oliver would have given me a second look?"

The pained expression on Tommy's face was her answer.

"Exactly. And no matter how much Oliver's changed, I'm pretty sure that part of him hasn't."

* * *

 _One year_

It was officially three months until Verdant's grand opening, and all the pieces were falling into place.

To be honest, John expected the last few weeks to be just as hectic as all the other ones leading up to it. But much to his pleasant surprise, it all looked like smooth sailing. The kitchen was already up and running. The decorators just had to put the final touches on the dining room. And he was already developing a very close relationship with all their vendors.

All in all, it was all coming together very nicely and the four business partners felt like they could finally breathe, for once.

They were long overdue for an easy stretch, anyway.

Since most everything had been taken care of, the only task John had left was to come up with the cocktail menu for the grand opening. And since Oliver was the chef, John thought it was best to have his friend be the one to taste test all of the ideas he came up with.

And if Oliver ended up drunk at the end of the night and letting _some_ things slip when he came home to his adorable roommate...well, then that wasn't John's fault, now was it?

It's like Lyla always says: sometimes alcohol isn't a social lubricant. Sometimes it's a social laxative.

"All right, I'm thinking of calling this the Verdant Special," John said as he set down an old-fashioned glass filled to the brim with an alarmingly green drink. "It's muddled cucumbers, mint and sugar with gin, Midori and a touch of soda water."

Oliver took a sip through the cocktail straw and immediately made a face.

"God, if that was any sweeter, I'd need a shot of insulin," he grimaced.

John chuckled. "Well that was what I was going for. If they can't taste the alcohol, they'll order more drinks. And we know that most of the profits are going to be from beverages."

Oliver shook his head and pushed the glass away from him. "Maybe girls like Thea will like it, but it's definitely not my thing."

John just shrugged and sucked down the remainder of the drink. "Suit yourself."

Oliver watched half in awe as his friend drank the rest of it without so much as flinching. "I will never understand people who can tolerate that much sugar."

John chuckled. "It's a gift. OK, so this next one isn't as sweet. It's a grapefruit gin fizz."

The gin fizz was far more tolerable and Oliver ended up finishing the whole thing with a nod of his head.

"I could see like a bachelorette party coming to the restaurant just for these," he said. "They'd order up like six of these and keep them coming until they all get sloppy."

"Just the kind of clientele we're looking for," John deadpanned.

"Turn your nose up all you want, but Tommy said we've already got three bachelorette parties booked in the spring, and we haven't even opened yet."

John shook his head as he got to work mixing the next drink. "Oliver, you wanted to open a restaurant because you wanted to chase _your_ vision of a perfect dining experience. This place is supposed to be about your creative abilities, not a go-to party destination for the idle rich and drunk."

He sighed. "I know. But at the moment, the whole city still thinks I'm a drunk playboy partygoer, and they expect this restaurant to be like that. Until we're open long enough to change their minds, we're probably going to get a lot of bachelor and bachelorette parties breezing through here."

It was John's turn to sigh. "Well, I guess it could be worse."

"That's the spirit."

John poured a golden amber liquid from his shaker over a lowball with a giant square ice cube. "Weren't you the same guy who was freaking out about your playboy reputation six months ago? What the heck changed since then?"

Oliver shrugged as he took the drink from his friend. "I don't know. I guess I realized I spent years building up my reputation and it's going to take an equally long time to get rid of it. That's what Felicity said, anyway."

Score. The perfect segue.

"What Felicity said, huh?" John asked slyly.

He nodded as he took a sip of his drink. "This one's good. Not too sweet and not too bitter."

John made a note and returned to the subject at hand. "So how are things going between you and Felicity? You two still living peacefully together?"

Oliver nodded. "Yeah. She's a great roommate, always has been. You know we're coming up on a year since she moved in?"

He chuckled. "A whole year of putting up with your bullshit? She deserves some kind of award. The poor woman must have the patience of Mother Theresa."

Oliver rolled his eyes. "I'm not that bad," he insisted.

"I'm sure she would say differently."

He just shook his head and went back to his drink. "I was actually thinking of making a special dinner to mark the occasion. Like a roommate anniversary or something."

Jesus Christ, John thought to himself. He wanted to smack his own head against a concrete wall. Or maybe smack Oliver's head against a concrete wall.

"A roommate anniversary? Is that even a thing?"

"Sure. Why not? People have anniversaries for all sorts of dumb shit."

John shook his head as he started mixing the next cocktail. Time to go all in.

"Hate to break it to you, man, but people usually reserve anniversaries for significant others. Unless you finally decide to quit lying to yourself and everyone else around you about your not-so-platonic feelings for your roommate, an anniversary celebration is going to look weird."

Oliver's jaw clenched and his fist tightened around his cocktail glass.

"You're wrong," he said stiffly.

John smirked. "I have not usually found that to be the case. But just out of curiosity, what am I supposed to be wrong about?"

Oliver looked away. "I don't...I can't have feelings for Felicity."

That made him quirk an eyebrow. "Oh? And why not?"

"Because if I did, then she'd move out. And I...I need her to stay."

John poured the next drink and eyed his friend curiously. "For her rent contribution?"

"No, it's not just that. It's...I need her to stay because she's the first person I've met outside the three of you guys who believes in me."

The minute the glass was full, Oliver took it and knocked the entire thing back. He didn't bother giving John any time to explain it or even tell him what was in it.

That sent John's eyebrows sky high.

"You know the other day, she was packing her lunch to take to work and she just reached into the fridge for this tub of leftovers from the dinner I'd made myself the other night and put it in her bag without even checking to see what it was. It was a new dish I'd wanted to try and I was almost one hundred percent sure she'd never had it before. When I warned her that it was new and she might not like it, she just waved it away all nonchalant and said, 'You made it, Oliver. I'm not worried.'"

John watched as his friend's eyes got softer and a little wistful as he told his story. The longing was plain on his face, and anyone else who could have been privy to the sight would have agreed: he was in love.

"She just has...she just has this faith in me," Oliver continued as he ran his fingertip over the rim of his empty glass. "It's unconditional. She doesn't have contingencies. She doesn't make backup plans. She...she supports me without question, like she knows that I'll do the right thing no matter what. And I've never had that before."

Listening to his confession hit John harder than he cared to admit, and he could feel a faint stinging in the back of his eyes. So he tried to wave away his emotions with some humor.

"If you're trying to convince me you don't have feelings for her, you're doing a really miserable job," he joked.

Oliver didn't say anything as he looked down at the slowly melting ice cube in his glass.

John tried again.

"Look, I get that you don't want her to move out. But what makes you think she would if you told her how you felt? You never know," he said as he crossed his fingers underneath the bar, "she might feel the same way."

Oliver scoffed and shook his head. "She doesn't. There's no way in a million years."

"Why not?" John pressed.

"Have you met her, Digg? She's a genius. A literal, certifiable genius. She's got a zillion IQ points on the both of of us combined. She's way too smart to date some billionaire playboy who dropped out of four different colleges he only got into in the first place because his parents bribed the admissions officers."

God, this whole taste testing session was turning into a gigantic bummer.

"Oliver, you're contradicting yourself at this point. You just told me that she has an unconditional and unwavering faith in you. That doesn't sound like the kind of person who sees you as a former frat boy who couldn't get his shit together."

He poured another drink and Oliver once again took it without bothering to ask what was in it.

"What could I possibly offer her?" he said with a miserable expression. "She'll come home from work and she'll tell me about her day and the shit she says just goes right over my head. I can't keep up with any of it. Most of the time i just nod my head and pretend like I understand her all while I'm praying that she doesn't ask me too many questions. I couldn't keep up with her."

John shook his head.

"Do you think for a second she can keep up with you whenever you start to talk about cooking techniques? Or when you get way too excited about whatever ingredient you found at the grocery store that's native to Southeastern Asia? We all have our areas of expertise that other people don't understand. And none of that is a reason for you to keep your feelings to yourself."

Oliver gazed contemplatively into his glass before taking a huge swig. After a long, thoughtful silence, he finally said, "I'm thinking of making a prime rib for our anniversary dinner. I figure it can't hurt to go with the classics."

He sighed.

John had Oliver try the last two drinks he had on his first draft of the cocktail menu and by then, the billionaire scion was more than a little sauced. With a chuckle and a shake of his head, the former soldier escorted his friend to his car to drive him home.

When they got back to Oliver's apartment, John opened the door to find Felicity curled up on the couch in her pajamas with a bowl of popcorn nestled in her lap.

"Oliver? John?" she called when she looked up to see the two of them.

Her roommate giggled as he stumbled over the threshold. "Hey, F'licity," he said, barreling through the syllables of her name the same way he barreled through the room to join her on the couch.

"He might have had one too many during the taste testing tonight," John warned her.

Felicity's eyes went from questioning surprise to amusement. "Ahh, OK."

"What are you still doing up, F'licity?" Oliver asked as he plopped down on the cushion next to her. "I thought you'd be asleep by now."

John walked to the kitchen for a bottle of water as a cover to surreptitiously listen to their conversation. This was it, he thought to himself. He was drunk. All his inhibitions were down, and he'd also planted the seed in Oliver's head just hours ago.

He was about to win the bet.

"I couldn't sleep," Felicity answered. He could practically hear her shrug.

"Why not?" Oliver asked.

"I don't sleep well when I don't know where you are," she answered. "I mean, I knew where you were tonight, but I also knew it involved alcohol and that had me worried. I just wanted to know that you were OK."

She said it in a nonchalant voice, and John was pretty sure she was also munching on popcorn as she was saying it. It just tumbled out of her mouth, like what she was saying wasn't even that big a deal.

But he knew that to Oliver, it meant everything.

"Felicity…"

Oliver's voice softened and John had to really strain to hear him.

"I...you're…"

Silence reigned over the apartment for a long stretch of time, and the tension was _killing_ John. So as quietly as he could, he walked toward the wall separating the kitchen and the living room and peeked around the corner.

Felicity was sitting on the couch, her body facing the television but her head turned to look at Oliver. But Oliver's entire body was angled toward hers, his eyes boring into hers. His hand hovered over her cheek, as if he was battling with his drunk brain to decide whether it was OK to touch her face.

And their lips were just inches away.

John could feel the anticipation coiling in his stomach.

"You're remarkable," Oliver murmured.

Felicity blinked a couple of times, like she couldn't quite connect what he was saying. Then, just when John felt like he was about to burst with all the tension, she turned away with a slight shake of her head and a little chuckle.

"And you're drunk," she said wryly as she put the bowl of popcorn down on the coffee table and got up from the couch. Then she motioned to him to get up and follow her. "Come on, let's get you to bed."

John hung his head. Goddamn it! It was so close! He was just _inches_ away from winning the bet, but Felicity's nonchalance had gotten in the way!

"I'm not that drunk," he muttered. But got up and followed her anyway.

"Uh huh," she said skeptically. Then she called out, "Digg? Just how much did he have tonight?"

"Seven drinks," he answered her, trying to keep the disappointment out of his voice. "All within a two hour timespan."

That made Felicity chuckle. "Not drunk my ass. Go brush your teeth and I'll force some water down your throat and an aspirin to help head off the hangover."

Oliver grumbled something under his breath, but did as he was directed.

Felicity joined John in the kitchen a few seconds later. "Did you at least manage to come up with a drink menu?"

"Not a final one, but I'm closer," he smiled. "It wasn't a totally useless exercise."

She laughed. "Well that's good, at least. I'd hate to think that you got Oliver drunk for no reason."

He snorted.

"Yeah. I'd hate for that, too."

* * *

 _Fifteen months_

The grand opening of Verdant, the hottest new restaurant in the Glades was finally upon them.

Oliver got to the kitchen early in the morning with the rest of his staff to get started on all the prep work. John and the serving staff spent all day preparing the dining room and stocking the bar. Tommy was doing the final training for the hostesses and taking care of the business side stuff.

And Thea...well, Thea was supposed to be hosting her parents for their first dinner at the restaurant. And considering the fact that Moira and Robert weren't wild about the idea of their children opening a restaurant in the first place, she knew she had her work cut out for her.

Thea arrived at Oliver and Felicity's in the early afternoon that Saturday with two garment bags and a whole duffle filled with different products slung across her shoulders. Then she knocked loudly on the door.

"Felicity, it's me! Open this door, we've gotta get this show on the road!"

The door whipped open a couple of seconds later to reveal a very confused woman still dressed in her sweats.

"Thea?" Felicity asked in confusion. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be getting ready for the opening?"

"I am getting ready for the opening," she answered, breezing through the door. "In fact, we're _both_ getting ready for the opening."

Felicity glanced at the clock on the wall. "The restaurant doesn't open for another three hours."

Thea shot the other woman a look that meant to say, _I know, I'm not an idiot_.

"This is a big moment for all of us," she said seriously. "It's perhaps the biggest moment in Ollie's professional career. You have to be there to support him. To support us."

"Well of course I'm going, Thea," Felicity said with a roll of her eyes. "I just don't see why I'm supposed to start getting ready three hours before it even starts."

"Because, I've decided you're going to have dinner with me and my parents."

That definitely stopped her in her tracks.

"You and your parents?" she demanded. "As in the guy who's technically my boss and the woman Tommy routinely refers to as 'The Iron Lady?'"

"Yep," Thea replied as she made her way down the hall to Felicity's room. She quickly hung the garment bags on the hook on her closet door. "I brought two dresses with me just in case nothing in your wardrobe works out. I also brought all my face and hair products. Your shoes are usually pretty on point and we don't wear the same size anyway, so I didn't bother with those."

"Right," Felicity said faintly. Her expression looked like she was about to pass out any second.

Thea sighed and set her bag down before crossing over to her friend and placing reassuring hands on both her shoulders. "Look, I know it's not fair of me to spring this on you last minute. But you know how important this restaurant is to Ollie and me, and you know how much our parents disapprove. We need your help."

Felicity shook her head frantically. "What in the world do you expect me to do that you haven't been able to? I'm just going to end up babbling up a storm and embarrassing all of us!"

"No you won't," she insisted. "It's a proven fact that any member of the Queen family will automatically like you within seconds of meeting you. Happened to Ollie and happened to me. It'll be the same with my parents."

Felicity still didn't look too sure. She bit her lip and stared hesitatingly at Thea.

"I promise," the younger woman said with a smile. "You'll be fine."

With a sigh, she nodded and let Thea get on with her preparations.

Exactly two and a half hours later, both women were ready. Thea had chosen a lacy red halter dress that clinged to her every curve, paired with a simple pair of black stilettos and gold accessories.

But she ended up spending far more time on Felicity, and the effort paid off in spades, she thought admiringly as her friend stepped out of the bathroom.

"So?" the older woman asked nervously. "How do I look?"

The simple answer was stunning. Thea put Felicity in a dark green, single-shoulder satin dress, with a skirt that flared out at her waist and ended just a few inches above her knee. She also wore a pair of glittering silver pumps, to accentuate the toned length of her legs. The rest of the styling was kept on the simple side: her hair fell over her shoulders in soft, golden waves and her ears sparkled with diamond studs.

"You look incredible," Thea smiled. "Absolutely gorgeous."

Felicity smiled back tentatively. "Good enough for the opening of the hottest restaurant in town?"

"Better," Thea promised. And with that, she took Felicity's hand and led her out of the apartment.

There was a small crowd outside the building once they reached the restaurant, and Thea's stomach somersaulted at the sight.

It was here. The day they'd worked toward for more than a year was actually here. This was finally happening.

Felicity reached over the console to grab her friend's hand. "You ready?" she asked.

Thea nodded. "As ready as I'll ever be.

The two women climbed out of the car and Felicity handed her keys to the valet. Then they walked past the winding queue straight inside.

"Ms. Queen, Ms. Smoak," the hostess greeted with a professional smile once she saw them. "Thank you so much for joining us this evening. Please follow me. Your table is ready. Mr. and Mrs. Queen have already arrived and are waiting for you."

Thea grinned. Tommy had done a stellar job with the training.

"Holy cow," Felicity breathed to her friend as they followed their hostess through the crowded dining room. "This place looks amazing. It looks like an actual _restaurant_."

Thea raised an eyebrow.

"I mean, I know it was always supposed to look like a restaurant," Felicity hurriedly added, "but...you know. For months it was just this empty industrial space and now...now there are tables. And people. And food."

That made Thea laugh. "I sincerely hope you won't be the one writing the review."

"I can, if you want," she winked. "I could hack Yelp, maybe a few foodie blogs and write gushing, five-star reviews."

"I'll keep that in mind."

Their hostess led them to a sectioned off room in the very back of the restaurant, clearly reserved for the VIPs. The booth they stopped at was the largest one in the room, and Robert and Moira Queen were both already seated, the former in a black suit and the latter in a glittering cocktail dress.

"Your server will be right with you," the hostess told them pleasantly before giving them a gracious nod and backing away.

Thea inwardly braced herself as she slid into the banquette. "Mom, Dad," she greeted them warmly as she reached forward to wrap her arms around them. "Thank you so much for coming. This is my friend, Felicity Smoak. She's also Ollie's roommate."

Both sets of eyebrows shot up at the word "roommate."

"Ah," Robert said with thinly veiled surprise. "Well it's certainly nice to meet you, Felicity. Thank you so much for joining us for dinner tonight."

Felicity fidgeted in her seat. "Thank you for having me," she said in a voice with the faintest quiver.

Their server came out with a bottle of Lafite Rothschild 1990 and a tray of glasses. He told them Chef Oliver had prepared their menu tonight using the wine as inspiration and hoped they would all enjoy their meal. After the wine was poured, he left the open bottle on the table with a flourish and disappeared.

"I'm really glad you could make it," Thea told her parents once their server was gone.

"Of course we made it," Moira said lightly, though her eyes were sharp and calculating. "This restaurant is obviously very important to you and your brother. We weren't going to miss it for the world."

To an outsider listening in on their conversation, Moira Queen would have sounded like the perfect, supportive mother. But Thea knew better. She could hear the condescension in her mother's voice: of course she would show up to the grand opening, but she still didn't expect much.

Thea was trying to form a response to her mother with equally barbed language, but Felicity chose that moment to step in.

"Oh, it's important to a lot of people," she said. "Tommy and Digg, for starters. But not just them, all of the people they've hired. Did you know that Tommy only looked for people from the Glades? I mean, it's widely known that this area has the lowest employment rate in Starling City, so they wanted to make sure they were pulling from local talent."

Moira and Robert both blinked in quiet surprise.

"Really," Robert said. Though the word sounded more like a statement than a question.

"Yeah," Felicity continued. "Plus, all the buzz this restaurant is getting is really great news for local development, you know? If people see that we're re-investing in the Glades, others will follow. It's just a restaurant now, but who knows? Maybe another will join soon. Then another and another and soon businesses will start popping up all over the Glades, giving people more jobs and higher property values."

Thea's heart flipped over in her chest as she listened to Felicity's mini-monologue, and she felt a renewed rush of warmth and gratitude toward her best friend's roommate.

Moira, on the other hand, was still staring at Felicity like she wasn't quite sure what to make of her. Like she was some sort of interesting puzzle that she was trying to figure out.

"So you think my son's restaurant is what will save the Glades?" she asked in slight amusement.

Felicity blushed a faint red. "Well, no. I mean, no one thing can save a city. It's pretty ridiculous to try and say that a single restaurant can lift an entire area out of poverty. But I think it's the first domino."

Robert chuckled. "I suppose that's one way of looking at it."

A few minutes later, their server returned with their first course, which was a roasted beet salad with a pomegranate vinaigrette.

Thea looked around the table as she ate, carefully measuring her parents' reactions. Moira's classic poker face gave nothing away, but Robert looked at least a little pleasantly surprised at the food.

Then the Queen matriarch frowned as she fixed her gaze at something across the table.

"Felicity, is your salad different than the rest of ours?"

Thea glanced down at her plate, then looked at her friend's. Huh, she thought in puzzlement. It _was_ different.

But it only made Felicity smile softly. She looked down at her plate with a kind of affection Thea never would have expected a woman to have toward a salad, of all things.

"Yeah, it looks like it is," she murmured to herself. Then she cleared her throat and looked up. "I'm allergic to nuts, and it looks like your salad has crushed pecans. This one doesn't. Oliver must have remembered."

Much to Thea's unending surprise, Moira's poker face finally cracked, and the formidable woman displayed an expression of astonishment.

"That's...that's very considerate," she said after a long beat.

"It is," Felicity nodded as she speared a few more spinach leaves. "Oliver's a very considerate guy."

And that, it seemed, was the hole in the dam that broke the rest of it wide open. The server brought by the second course (foie gras mousse served on crostini with port cherries, truffle goat cheese and a brandy reduction), and Moira nodded in approval.

By the time they reached their third course (seared Chilean sea bass with a blood orange tarragon beurre blanc), she was smiling. _Actually_ smiling. Moira Queen, of all people.

"That was the best fish I think I've ever had," Robert said as he set his fork down over his empty plate.

"Yes," Moira nodded as she delicately patted the corners of her mouth with her napkin. "Absolutely delicious."

The final course was the dessert course, and Thea practically jumped in excitement when she saw it.

"It's the s'mores creme brulee he made me for my birthday," she told her parents. "I begged him to put it on the menu tonight and he rolled his eyes and told me forget it. I guess he must have been bluffing."

Felicity chuckled as she picked up her spoon and cracked open the caramelized sugar crust of her creme brulee.

Once the last of the dessert had disappeared, Oliver chose that moment to step out of the kitchen to visit their table. He was dressed in an impeccably white chef's coat, though the towel tied at his waist proved that he'd been hard at work all night. There was also a slight sheen of sweat all over his face, but the shine was nothing compared the brilliance of his happy smile.

"Hi, guys," he greeted his parents, leaning forward to kiss them both on the cheek. "How was your meal?"

Moira grinned at her son. "Sweetheart, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that that was the _best_ meal I have ever had."

Most children would have dismissed their parents' glowing praise as nothing more than bias. But most children didn't grow up with Moira Queen as a parent.

It made her compliment all the sweeter, and Thea watched with pride as her brother's eyes welled up with tears.

"Thank you," he said in a voice wavering with emotion. "Thank you guys _so much_."

After he hugged his parents, he turned to Thea and swept her up in a hug.

"We did it," he whispered in her ear.

She squeezed him tight and buried her face in his shoulder. " _You_ did it. I'm so proud of you, big brother."

When they finally released each other, he turned to his roommate with a smile wider than the Amazon. "And how was your meal?"

"I suppose it was all right. Not anything to write home about," she responded in a nonchalant tone, but her grin was anything but.

Oliver laughed as he reached forward to give her a hug. Their embrace lingered a little and he whispered something in Felicity's ear that stained her cheeks bright red when they pulled away.

Thea looked away to hide her smile.

"OK, well I need to get back to the kitchen, but seriously, thank you so much for coming out tonight," he told them. "It means the world to me."

"Congratulations, Oliver," Robert beamed. "We're really proud of you, son."

With one last grin, he waved goodbye and ran back to the kitchen.

Though the meal was over, the four of them felt no hurry to leave and lingered over their last glass of wine as they talked. The conversation flowed much more freely than before, and Thea watched as her parents warmed up to Felicity almost exactly as she had predicted. It certainly didn't hurt when Robert discovered that Felicity worked at Queen Consolidated, though she was far too talented to work in the IT department. By the end of their conversation, he told her that he would try to find her promotion as soon as he could, which only made her beautiful smile even bigger.

When the last of the wine had finally disappeared, they all reluctantly stood to leave. Felicity ducked out for a brief moment to use the restroom, and Moira chose that moment to pull Thea aside.

"Darling," she whispered to her daughter conspiratorially, "tell me the truth. What's going on between Felicity and your brother?"

Thea giggled. "Nothing...yet."

Moira's sharp blue eyes twinkled. "I assume you have some sort of plan in place to make sure that changes, yes?"

"I have a few ideas, yes."

"Well," the Queen matriarch smirked, "should you need help, just know you can always count on your mother."

Oh yeah, Thea thought smugly to herself as she hugged her mom. Tommy and Digg were going _down_.


	3. Chapter 3

**Eighteen months**

Verdant had only been open for three months, but it had swiftly become one of the most popular restaurants in all of Starling City.

Sure, the initial drive for business probably had something to do with the fact that three billionaire scions were behind the idea and concept, but at most John expected that the combined Merlyn-Queen starpower had only brought in about a month's worth of business.

The rest of it, he was absolutely certain, was thanks to the hard work all four partners had put into the restaurant. Tommy and Thea had created a gorgeous dining room and dining experience out in the front of the house. John was responsible for what one Yelper had called "the most addictive cocktails on the West Coast."

And then there was Oliver. No one in the city had really expected his food to be any good, but when everyone found out just how good it was, they couldn't get enough.

All in all, they were on track to turn a profit at the end of the year, which was far better than all of their projections. And John had scarcely been prouder of any other enterprise he had ever undertaken.

He had just finished clearing all the tickets that came his way near the end of the dinner rush when he heard someone climb onto the barstool behind him.

"Be right with you," he called.

"No worries, Digg, it's just me."

He glanced over his shoulder and saw Felicity shrugging off her coat. When he was finished with his task he turned toward her.

"Hey, baby girl," he greeted her with a smile. "You want anything?"

"I'll take a glass of Merlot," she answered.

That made John frown almost immediately. Being a bartender and also Felicity's friend meant he could tell her moods based on what drink she ordered. Merlot was her sad and/or pensive drink.

"You want to talk about it?" he said as he pulled a glass from underneath the bar and started pouring.

She sighed, then plopped her head on the arms she rested on the bar. She stayed like that for a long time before finally answering, "I got offered a promotion today."

John's mouth widened into a smile. "Felicity, that's great news! Congratulations!"

She grunted. "The thing is, I don't know if I'll take it."

His frown returned once he realized that her reaction was way less than what he had expected. "OK, correct me if I'm wrong, but you were always complaining about how your talent is wasted on the job you have now. Why are you acting so glum? Isn't this what you wanted?"

She lifted her head and dragged the glass of wine closer to her. "It _is_ what I wanted," she muttered as she took a sip. "This is supposed to be a dream come true."

"Then what's the problem?"

Felicity ran her fingertip over the rim of her glass as she contemplated her answer. Then, just as she opened her mouth to give her reply, the kitchen doors burst open.

"There she is!" Oliver shouted as he pointed at her, a huge smile lighting up his face. "Diggle, you are looking at the newest projects director of the Applied Sciences division of Queen Consolidated!"

Felicity's eyes widened in shock behind her glasses. "H-How did you hear about it?" she stuttered.

With a jubilant laugh, the chef ran around the bar to his roommate and gave her a big hug. "My mom called to tell me. Congratulations, Felicity! I'm so proud of you!"

John watched as the poor girl stiffened in her roommate's embrace before reluctantly reaching up to return the hug. Something also clouded over in her eyes and it made him wonder just why she wasn't as excited about this promotion as Oliver was.

"But I haven't accepted yet," she protested.

Oliver pulled away from the embrace and waved away her words. "But you will! And when you do, we're going to celebrate. Do you want to throw a party? We could throw it here. Or we could have a dinner party on Sunday. Or if you're as tired of this place as I am, we could go to Table Salt."

Felicity's jaw went slack in slight horror. "Oh, we don't have to do any of that," she insisted hurriedly. "Really, Oliver, it's not that big a deal."

"Are you kidding me?" he scoffed. "This is a huge deal! You're finally going to be doing a job that's worthy of your skillset. You're finally going to get paid at least a fraction of what you're worth! This is the first step to you finally taking over the whole Applied Sciences division, like you've always dreamed! And _that_ deserves a celebration!"

John snorted under his breath. Not that he didn't disagree with anything Oliver had said — he was just baffled that he hadn't won the damn bet yet.

She tried again. "Oliver, I really don't think — "

But she didn't get the chance to finish what she thought, because at that moment, Roy stuck his head out of the kitchen door. "Yo, boss! We need you in here!"

"Yeah, I'll be there in a second!" Then Oliver turned back to his roommate, his face still excited. "Don't leave, OK? We're closing in a few hours, and afterward we can sit down and plan your celebration."

Felicity closed her eyes in exhaustion, like it was killing her to even be sitting there. But when she opened her eyes again, she had pasted a big smile to her face and nodded.

"Sure. I'll stay."

Oliver grinned back at her and gave her one last hug before turning to go back to the kitchen.

Once he was gone, her smile immediately fell as she turned back to the bar and her glass of merlot. "Well this is just great," she muttered to herself.

John frowned as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Felicity, what's the matter? Why are you so bummed about this promotion?"

She reached up to pull her glasses off her face and pinch the bridge over her nose between her eyes. "They want me to lead the projects team based in Coast City. Meaning if I took the job, I'd have to leave Starling."

John's froze at Felicity's news. As he struggled to process the words that came out of her mouth, she grabbed her wineglass and chugged its contents.

"Are you serious?" he demanded.

She nodded miserably as she set down the empty glass. "Oliver's mom was the one who suggested it. She said the Coast City team needs a cyber security expert, and I would be perfect. If I took the job, I'd start by the end of next month, which should give me 'sufficient time to find adequate living arrangements.'"

The thought of Felicity leaving Starling was about as welcome to John as an emergency root canal. He'd only known the woman for little more than a year, but in that time she'd become one of his closest friends, and she'd been there to support all four of them in their restaurant endeavors, Oliver most especially. If it hadn't been for her, John doubted Oliver would have gone through with the thing at all.

He automatically reached for the bottle of wine and refilled Felicity's glass.

"So what are you going to do?" he finally asked.

"I don't know," she whispered. "On the one hand, this promotion could mean big things for my career. But…"

"But you don't want to leave," he finished for her.

She nodded miserably. "I love it here. I have friends here. I have a life here. This is...this is the first place I feel like I've ever really belonged."

John didn't know what else to say. He wasn't under any delusions: Felicity had always been very focused on her career. If it came right down to the wire, he didn't have any doubts that she'd pick the promotion over staying in Starling City.

But it didn't mean that it wouldn't be painful for everyone else to watch her go.

And God, he couldn't even imagine what Oliver was going to do. The boy was so head over heels in love with his roommate that he knew it would crush his friend, far more than anything else in the world had the power to do.

Eventually, a group of new tickets came to the bar and John was once again swept up in the pace of his work. But every muscle in his body tensed with the tick of the clock, knowing that once Verdant's doors were closed, he would have to watch a bomb drop.

By ten o'clock, the kitchen had shut down for the night, and Felicity had downed three glasses of merlot. She was swaying in her stool a little and John was keeping a close eye on her.

Once the staff had finished cleaning everything, Oliver emerged from the double doors and took the stool next to his roommate.

"So?" he asked. "Have you given anymore thought about the party?"

John, who had been wiping down the counters, flinched at his friend's words. Now that he knew why Felicity was so reticent to celebrate this promotion, Oliver's enthusiasm just felt like some cruel, ironic joke.

Before she could answer, Tommy and Thea chose that moment to come out of office.

"Party?" Tommy called as he approached the bar. "Is someone reserving the restaurant for a function?"

"No, the party's for Felicity," Oliver beamed.

Tommy quirked an eyebrow. "Didn't we already celebrate your birthday a couple months ago? I might not remember a lot from that night, but I remember that much, at least."

"It's to celebrate her promotion," Oliver explained. "She's finally getting recognized for her work, and I figure that's as good an excuse as any for us to have a party."

John's jaw clenched as he tried to keep himself from frowning. God, this was excruciating — waiting for the other shoe to drop was killing him.

He watched as Felicity tried once again to explain herself, her face a little redder than it was before (though John suspected that was partly thanks to the alcohol). But yet again, she was interrupted before she could even get the words out.

"So you're taking it?" Thea squealed with excitement as she rushed forward to give the other woman a hug. "Oh, this is so exciting! I'll take next weekend off to go up with you and look for apartments. I haven't been to Coast City in _ages_."

Felicity froze in Thea's embrace, and John stilled at the implication of Thea's words.

She _knew_.

And immediately, John was suspicious. If she knew and she was excited about her brother's roommate moving to another city, then surely she was up to something.

Oliver, on the other hand, was still confused. "What in the world are you talking about? Why are you going to Coast City?"

Felicity's eyes were glassy behind her glasses as she turned back to her roommate. "That's where the job is," she said quietly.

John watched the shock freeze on Oliver's face, and a wave of pity overtook him.

"Wait a minute," Tommy interjected, pointing a suspicious finger at Thea. "How did _you_ know about it?"

"Mom told me when we had lunch today," she shrugged. Then she turned back to Felicity. "So? What do you say? We'll have a girl's day in Coast City. We'll go to all the hot spots after we finish apartment hunting. It'll be so much fun, I promise!"

Felicity, who was still looking at Oliver with a searching expression, simply nodded. "Um, sure. That would be great."

An awkward silence descended on all of them. John avoided the glances Oliver and Felicity were sending each other by straightening the bottles of liquor behind him.

Finally, Felicity broke the quiet.

"I should...I should get going. I called for an Uber a few minutes ago and it says he'll be here any minute, so…"

"I could give you a ride home, if you want," Oliver offered quietly.

She shook her head. "No. Um, thanks though. I just need some time. Alone. With my thoughts. I'll see you when you come home, OK?"

And with one last reassuring pat on his shoulder, she slid off the barstool and walked out of the restaurant.

Another long silence stretched over them as they listened to the clicking of Felicity's heels fade away into the distance. It was a testament to the strength of her personality that they could all still feel her presence after she had walked away.

"I have to check on something in the kitchen," Oliver murmured, before turning around and heading through the double doors next to the bar.

The minute he was gone, Tommy rounded on Thea. "And just what game are you playing here?" he demanded.

"Game?" she repeated innocently. "I'm not playing any game!"

"Bullshit," John shot back, his gigantic arms crossed over his broad chest. "You're up to something with this. I can tell. No way are you this excited for Felicity to move away to another city."

Thea just smirked at the two of them before shrugging on her sweater. "Well, I guess you'll have to wait and see, won't you?" And with that she turned on her heel and disappeared, the same way Felicity left.

Tommy shook his head after the younger Queen disappeared. "This is some kind of joke, right? Like we'll wake up tomorrow and realize that none of this is actually happening."

John didn't say anything in response. Instead, he dropped his arms and made long strides toward the kitchen, throwing open the swinging double doors to see Oliver standing in the middle of a spotless room of stainless steel cooking equipment, looking completely lost.

"She's leaving," he said. "Felicity's leaving."

He'd never seen his friend like this. Sure, Oliver had his moments of uncertainty, just like everyone else. But this...this was hopelessness. And John hated it.

"Oliver, man, now it's more important than ever," he said, his voice slightly urgent. "You have to tell her how you feel about her."

The chef turned his head to stare blankly at his friend, like he could hardly register what John had just said. Like the thought was completely foreign to him in that moment.

"Listen to me," he said, closing the distance between the two of them and clapping a hand on Oliver's shoulder. "I know you were worried about making it weird between the two of you, but this is the last chance you have."

It wasn't even about the bet anymore. John knew Oliver, and he knew that if he just let her go without at least telling her, he'd regret it forever. And though he was convinced that Felicity didn't feel anything for Oliver in return, John was also convinced that his friend had to take this chance.

"I...I don't know if I can just put myself out there like that," he whispered.

"What have you got to lose? If she doesn't feel the same way, she'll move to Coast City. If she _does_ feel the same way, she might stay."

"But this is her dream! I can't be the one to keep her from that!"

John wasn't convinced. "You can find a million excuses not to tell her how you really feel, but you only need one reason to bite the bullet and do it. And that reason is that you don't want to live your life with any regrets. This might just be your biggest one."

Oliver rubbed his calloused hands over his face. When they fell away, John noticed a tiny glint of something in his eyes. It looked a little like determination.

"I think you're right," he said quietly.

"I know I am," John grinned. "Come on, man. I'll pour you a scotch before I take you home."

Oliver closed his eyes as John led him back to the bar. "Home. It's only home when she's there. Without her, it's just an empty apartment."

John nodded. "I suggest you lead with that."

* * *

 **Two days later**

It was in the middle of the dinner rush at Verdant, but Tommy was safely ensconced in the office on the second floor. He could hear the dull thrum of dining room chatter that had, in the few months they'd been open, become a soothing sound for him.

Never would he have guessed that he would consider this restaurant his second home.

As Tommy pored over the spreadsheets, he heard a knock on the door.

"Come in," he called.

The doorknob turned and he saw Felicity walking in, looking absolutely exhausted.

"Hey," she greeted with a tired smile. "Thea asked me to come over to update the restaurant's system. Is that OK?"

Tommy looked bewildered at her rumpled state, but he got up from his seat anyway. "Yeah, of course. You're the expert. Besides, it'll probably be the last time we get some free IT support for a while, right?"

A shadow fell over her eyes and Tommy realized belatedly that it was probably the wrong thing to say.

"Thanks," she said as she took the seat he vacated and turned to the computer.

As she worked, he plopped down on the couch across from the desk. Of all the furniture in the entire restaurant, it was by far the grungiest, but mostly because Oliver used it as a place to grab a quick nap in between prep time and meal services.

"So," Tommy began after a few minutes. "You wanna tell me why you look like crap?"

She rolled her eyes. "It's hard to believe that you were once voted Starling City's Most Charming."

He held up his hands in surrender. "I'm just saying. You don't look like your usual, put-together self. Instead you look like that morning after New Year's when Thea dragged us all out to celebrate with Roy."

Felicity let out a sigh. "It's just...stress. From work and stuff."

He clucked his tongue. "Would 'stuff' also be code for 'Ollie?'"

She flinched at his name and Tommy knew he hit the nail on the head.

Absentmindedly, he picked at the loose threads of the throw pillows. "Do you want to talk about it?"

She didn't say anything for a long time and for a moment, he thought that was his answer. But then finally she spoke.

"To be honest, I thought I'd talk about it with Oliver first, not you," she murmured as she clicked around on the monitors in front of her. "But he's been avoiding me ever since he found out about the promotion being in Coast City and now...now I don't know what to do."

He nodded. "Not to sound too...shrink-like, but how does that make you feel?"

To Tommy's utter horror, tears started to pool in the corners of her eyes. She swiped them away before they got the chance to escape.

"He's supposed to be my friend," she whispered. "Even though I know he doesn't feel the same way I do, I thought he'd at least be a little sad that I had to move away. But now he won't talk to me, he won't look at me. He looks for excuses not to be in the same space as me. It's like I don't exist anymore and it just...it hurts."

Despite what some of Tommy's ex flings might have said, he had a heart, and it was aching as he watched his friend cry over his best friend.

He got up from the couch and started rubbing circles over Felicity's shoulders in what he hoped was a reassuring motion. "Hey, it's going to be OK. You know that, right?"

She sniffed. "It doesn't feel like it."

He waited a little while for her tears to subside. Then he started again.

"You know what I think you should do before you leave?"

"What?"

"I think you should tell him how you feel. Tell him that you're in love with him."

She scoffed as she wiped her eyes again. "Are you kidding? That sounds like the worst idea in the world. If he's ignoring me now, can you imagine how much worse it'll be if I tell him?"

He wasn't even thinking about the bet anymore. In that instant, all he cared about was helping his friend come into her own.

"Lis, you can't leave Starling City without telling him," Tommy insisted. "He deserves to know. And you deserve the chance to tell him how you feel. To get it off your chest. You have to let it go before you can move on."

She sniffed again as she considered his words.

"How do you figure it'll help me move on?"

"Because you'll get closure. If he feels the same way as you do, then great. But if he doesn't, then you'll know you did everything you could. And you won't be hanging onto what-ifs for the rest of your life."

She looked up at him with something that looked like surprise lighting in her eyes. "When did you get so smart?"

He chuckled. "I've always been smart. People were just always underestimating me."

That made her laugh a little, but the grin disappeared as quickly as it came.

"I'm scared," she whispered. "I'm scared to tell him."

He could totally see where she was coming from. If he were in her shoes, he'd be scared shitless and would be running in the other direction.

But Felicity was stronger than he was.

"I know. That's only normal."

She sighed and leaned back in the chair to stare up at the ceiling. "You're right though. The worst that could happen is he doesn't feel the same way, and I move to Coast City. What do I have to lose?"

"Nothing."

She closed her eyes and inhaled. Then, in a move so fast it almost made him a little dizzy, she stood from the chair and straightened her back, like she was getting ready to go into battle.

"I'm going to do it."

Tommy's innards clenched in excitement. "Good!" he encouraged.

Then she grabbed his arm as she walked toward the door. "You're coming with me."

And just like that, Tommy's smile immediately fell away.

Sure, he wanted Felicity to tell Ollie how she felt. But he didn't want to be there to witness the heartbreak. "Wait, you're going to tell him now? Here? While he's working?"

"If I tell him here, then he can't run away from me," she said as she dragged him out of the office and down the stairs. "I'm not going to give him the opportunity to walk away from me this time. He's going to hear what I have to say whether he likes it or not."

Tommy grimaced. While her logic was sound, it still didn't make him want to stick around to watch her inevitable humiliation.

It was still early in the service, so there weren't many people in the dining room watching as Felicity dragged Tommy by the arm through the entire restaurant. But the few people who were there watched in surprise as the tiny blonde tramped through the serene room with a look of pure determination on her face.

"Felicity, please," Tommy begged. "I really don't think this is a good idea."

She turned to glare at him. "It was _your_ idea in the first place."

"My idea was to tell him you love him, not hold him hostage with you feelings in his restaurant during the middle of dinner service!" he hissed.

She ignored him as she ventured on.

Once they reached the bar, Digg greeted them with a pair of raised eyebrows. "Hey, guys. Are you OK?"

"We're fine, Digg. We just want to see Oliver. He in the kitchen?"

"Yeah," he answered slowly. "We're about to hit a dinner rush, though."

"It won't take long," she said, and it made Tommy grimace.

She walked around the bar toward the swinging double doors and pushed her way through. But the minutes he was on the other side, she froze, forcing Tommy to bump into her from behind.

The kitchen looked like it always did in the middle of a dinner service. The kitchen staff swooped around the expansive room, tossing things in searing hot pans and tending to cooking meat on the grill. They yelled over the din of cooking sounds, demanding one thing or another or warning of something hot coming up right behind them.

But in the midst of all this chaos, Oliver stood in the center, bending over a prep table with a look of concentration on his face as he dressed the plates getting ready to go out to the dining room. If anyone had ever doubted he belonged in a kitchen, all they had to do was see him in one. It was his natural habitat as he handled delicate plates, squeezed tiny, controlled droplets of some sauce from a bottle.

His name denoted royalty, and that kitchen was his kingdom.

When Tommy realized that there wasn't anything out of the ordinary, he tapped Felicity lightly on her stiff shoulder.

"Felicity? You OK?" he asked her.

Oliver heard his voice, and he looked up from the plate he was dressing. Then he froze when he saw Tommy and Felicity in his kitchen.

"Hey," he said in breathless surprise.

Tommy heard her swallow. "Hi," she answered in a raspy voice.

In an instant, Oliver left his station and wiped his hands on the towel tied to his waist. "Uh, Felicity, I — "

Her name must have shaken her out of her stupor, because she pulled herself together and steeled her spine as she looked up at her roommate. "I need to talk to you," she said in a voice that left no room for compromise.

Oliver nodded. "Yeah, I need to talk to you too."

And just like that, she was thrown off again.

"You...you do?" she said after a long pause.

"Yeah," he murmured. "I have to tell you something important. But, um...I can't do it here, OK? I was thinking we could talk about it when I get home?"

Felicity blinked a few times, and Tommy could tell she was torn between blurting it out right then and there or waiting until she got home to hear what he had to say.

"You're really going to talk to me?" she said with a suspicious tone. "You're not going to avoid me or ignore me or pretend like I don't exist?"

He shook his head. "I promise."

Tommy frowned at the intensity in his best friend's eyes. There weren't a lot of things outside of a kitchen that could make Ollie look like that, and it made him wonder just what exactly he wanted to say to Felicity.

She chewed on her lip as she considered his words. Then, she took a deep breath and nodded. "OK. We'll talk when you get home."

The tension seeped out of Tommy the minute she agreed. He wouldn't have to watch her heart get broken after all. What a massive relief.

"Great," Ollie smiled. "Then...well, I have to get back to work. But I should be home by midnight."

"I'll wait up for you," she promised.

He reached forward and quickly grasped her hand with his. With one last grin in her direction, he turned around and went back to work. Tommy and Felicity watched for a few minutes as he re-immersed himself in his cooking, then walked back out through the swinging double doors.

"What do you think he wants to tell you?" Tommy asked the minute the kitchen doors swung closed behind them.

"I don't know," Felicity sighed, her brow furrowed a little in concern. "But it can't be bad, right?"

With the nervous way Ollie had been smiling, Tommy was pretty sure it was supposed to be something good. But then again, his definition of good news was sometimes a little skewed.

"I hope so," Tommy answered. "But whatever it is, good or bad, I think you'll be OK."

She nodded. "Yeah, I think you're right. I guess I better go, though. If I'm going to tell him how I feel, I think it'll be easier after I've had a couple of glasses of cabernet, first."

"Hey, whatever you need to make it through. I believe in you, Smoak."

She smiled at him, then leaned up to press a kiss against his cheek. "Thanks, Merlyn. I owe you one."

He grinned back. "Any time."

Once she left, Tommy took up the empty stool at the end of the bar, and Digg slid a tumbler of scotch in front of him. "And what was that?" he asked.

"Oh, nothing," Tommy answered as he smirked at his friend over the rim of his glass. "Just me winning the bet is all."

Digg snorted. "Oh really?"

"Really."

He just shook his head. "We'll see about that."

* * *

 **The next day**

Thea Queen pulled into the underground parking structure of her brother's apartment building, right next to Tommy's Mercedes. They waved at each other before climbing out of their respective cars.

"You have any idea what this is about?" Tommy asked.

Felicity had texted Tommy, John and Thea at ten o'clock that morning, asking them to come to the apartment because she had a big announcement. Considering that everyone already knew about the promotion, her news must have been something different, and Thea had an inkling about what it might be.

But then again, she was never the kind of person to get ahead of herself.

"Nope," she answered with a hint of a smile.

The two of them walked to the elevator together and rode it all the way to Ollie's floor. But by when they got to the apartment, they saw Digg standing outside the door with a brow furrowed in confusion.

"Hey," Tommy called to Digg as they approached. "What are you doing just standing out here?"

"I've been knocking on their door for ten minutes now, and they still haven't answered," he replied with a frown. "And I don't hear any noises coming from inside. I don't even know if they're home."

Thea pursed her lips in thought. "Huh. Well, there's only one way to find out."

She pulled her keys out of her purse and singled out the spare key Oliver had given her when he first moved in.

"I thought that was for emergencies only," Tommy reminded her.

"This is an emergency," Thea answered. "They could be in serious trouble. We have to make sure neither one of them are hurt."

She unlocked the door and the three of them walked into the apartment. Thea heard a rustling noise coming from the kitchen, so she slowly made her way toward the room.

The sight that greeted her, though unsurprising, was something she wished she'd never had to see. Ever.

Felicity was perched on the edge of the island counter, while Oliver was pressed up against her, standing between her legs. His hands were splayed across her bottom and his mouth was on hers, like he was practically glued there.

"Oh my God," Tommy gasped.

At the sound of someone else in the apartment, the two of them sprang apart.

"Well I guess neither of them are hurt," Thea said in slight amusement.

Felicity blushed as she hopped down from the counter and Oliver looked down sheepishly as he straightened his rumpled shirt.

Tommy and Digg, on the other hand, were frozen in complete shock.

"So, uh...wanna explain what's going on here?" Thea asked.

Oliver and Felicity exchanged loaded glances. Then she reached forward and took his hand in hers, their fingers laced together.

Thea couldn't help but smirk at the sight.

"I'm staying here in Starling City after all," Felicity announced. "When I told Moira that I didn't want to move to Coast City, she told me that there was an opening for a projects manager position for the team in Starling and she offered it to me."

"Is that all you wanted to tell us?" Thea asked with raised eyebrows.

Felicity coughed. "No," she blushed, and Oliver chuckled.

"We've also...we've also decided to start a relationship," he added.

Tommy and Digg were still both speechless, but Thea — who saw the whole thing coming from a mile away — stepped forward to give her big brother a hug.

"That's really great news," she beamed at him. When she released him, she turned to Felicity for another hug. "I'm so happy for the two of you."

"Thanks, Thea," Felicity grinned back. "We were a little nervous about telling you guys, but I'm glad you approve."

Oliver, however, was still anxiously watching Tommy and Digg's shocked reactions. "Guys, I know this is kind of big and we sort of sprung this on you, but I promise, this is a good thing. We're both really happy."

Digg finally shook off his surprise and gave him a shaky smile. "Uh, yeah. Good for you, man. If you're happy then we're happy. This is really fantastic news."

He nudged Tommy in the side with his elbow and the other man nodded dumbly.

"Great," Felicity grinned. "So then let's go out to lunch celebrate? It's on me."

The three of them agreed and with that, Oliver and Felicity went back to their rooms to change and get ready to go out. Once they were alone, Thea turned a smirk to both of her friends.

"I do believe this means I won the bet," she crowed.

Tommy narrowed his eyes. "You had this whole thing planned, didn't you? You and Moira. That Coast City job was a ruse the whole time."

"Don't hate the player, hate the game," Thea sniffed.

Digg scoffed. "You haven't won yet."

"Yes I have!" she protested. "They're together! They're in a relationship! That means I won and now you both owe me two hundred dollars!"

"No," Digg shot back. "Your bet was that they'd both realize they had feelings for each other — "

"Exactly! So I won!"

Digg continued like he hadn't been interrupted. " _And_ that they would live happily ever after! If they break up, then you still lose!"

Thea narrowed her eyes. "You dirty cheat."

"Takes one to know one."

She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Digg. "Fine. But the minute they get engaged, I win."

"Assuming they even make it that far," Digg smirked.

Thea rolled her eyes. If they wanted to play the long game, then that was fine. She could wait as long as they wanted, because she knew her brother better than anyone. And she knew for a fact that he was in love with Felicity Smoak, and that would never, ever change.

* * *

 **Three years later**

All of Starling City's elite was gathered in the dining room at Verdant. All but one.

Thea Queen was holed up in the office on the second floor, furiously scribbling on the sheets of paper in front of her.

In fact, she was so focused that she didn't even look up when the door to the office opened.

"Babe?" Roy called from the doorway. "What are you doing?"

"I'm trying to finish this," she muttered, her tongue caught between her teeth. "Don't worry, I'll be down there in a second."

Roy stepped forward from the doorway and walked behind the desk to press a kiss on the top of his girlfriend's head. "You're not worried, are you? You're going to be great."

She frowned as she crossed out a huge line of text. "It's not just enough to be great, Roy. I want this to be _perfect_."

"I'm sure it will be," he said soothingly. "Don't beat yourself up over this."

She sighed before finally looking up from her paper. "Look, I'm almost done, OK? Just go back down there. I'll be right behind you."

He chuckled and pecked her on the lips. "Whatever you say, babe." And with that he left her alone to finish her speech.

Once she was alone, Thea looked back down on what she had already written. She ran a frustrated hand through her brown hair as she read and reread every line. Was it big enough? Was it important enough? Did it convey exactly what she wanted to convey?

She closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair. She knew that this event wasn't for her: it was for her brother and Felicity. But she wanted to make sure that her speech was the perfect balance of funny and sentimental. She wanted to make sure that it was worthy for both of them, two of the people she loved most in the world.

They deserved that much.

Twenty minutes later, she folded up the sheafs of paper and tucked it into the pocket of her lacy green cocktail dress. Then she descended the stairs to join the festivities.

The decorations were grander than any other event Verdant had ever put on. The ceiling was swathed in large bolts of silver and royal blue fabric. The centerpieces at every table were huge towers of white roses on deep blue tablecloths. And the candles that lined the space added to the intimacy of the lighting, making the whole place glow with warmth.

Moira walked up to her daughter once she spotted her and tucked her arm in hers. "Darling, have you seen your brother?" she asked.

Thea shook her head. "He's probably in the kitchen yelling at the catering staff," she joked.

Moira chuckled. "Very well. I'll just have one of the serving staff drag him away."

Just as the Queen matriarch said that, the double doors that led to the kitchen swung open and Oliver stumbled through, followed closely by a scowling Felicity.

"I was just trying to — " he started, but she cut him off.

"I don't care what you were trying to do," she said firmly. "You're supposed to be the celebrant tonight, not the caterer. Let them do their jobs."

"But — "

"Oliver, if I have to drag you out of that kitchen one more time, you will be sleeping on the couch for the rest of the week."

He muttered something under his breath as he glared at her mutinously, but Felicity returned his look with the sternest look she could muster. Then, he rolled his eyes and took her hand, and together they ventured into the crowd.

Moira turned to her daughter with an amused grin. "I should have known Felicity would take care of it."

Thea laughed at that.

The cocktail hour went by without further incident, and soon all the guests were seated at their tables for the dinner. Thea sat at the center table with her parents Roy and Ollie and Felicity. They all made pleasant conversation, and much to everyone's surprise, Oliver didn't have a single bad thing to say about the food.

Once the entrees were cleared out and the waiting staff was refilling everyone's water, Thea took that as her cue.

With a deep breath, she stood from her seat and made her way to the front of the room on the small dais where the jazz band was seated. The conductor handed her the microphone and she pulled out the sheets of paper from her pocket.

"Good evening, everyone," she greeted. "I want to thank you all for coming tonight, to help us celebrate my brother's engagement to his lovely fiancee, Felicity Smoak."

Everyone turned to clap politely in the couple's direction. Oliver grinned at Felicity and the two of them leaned forward for a soft kiss.

"As you all know, I am Thea Queen, and I have known Ollie my entire life. He has been my protector, my mentor and one of my best friends, and I couldn't have asked for a better brother in the world."

The room made the appropriate aww-ing noises and Oliver sent a soft smile at his sister.

"I've always been Ollie's biggest fan, and because of this, I never really thought that there was anyone worthy of him. While the rest of the world believed he was nothing but an irresponsible playboy, I knew better. I knew that he was kind and generous, and he would do anything for the people he loved. I also knew that it would take a special woman to deserve that kind of dedication, and I was almost halfway convinced that she didn't exist.

"That is, until I met Felicity Smoak."

Felicity blushed and ducked her head as Oliver chuckled.

"When I first met Felicity, she was nothing like I expected. She was just some blonde nerd who agreed to be my brother's roommate. But in their first six months of living together, she fought him over boxes of instant mac 'n' cheese and she yelled at him for tossing his wet towels all over the bathroom. In fact, Tommy, John and I even had a bet going to see how long it would take for her to get fed up with my brother and move out."

Everyone chuckled.

"But the more I got to know Felicity, the more I realized that she was tougher than anyone I'd ever met before. And that was when I realized that she might actually be the one to deserve him.

"I came to this realization one night, here at Verdant, before it even was Verdant. John, Tommy and I were all stressed out about all the millions of decisions we had to make and Ollie even more so. He'd been snapping at everyone for weeks, but the minute Felicity came in, calmed him down. He was at peace in her presence, and that was when I knew that they were in love."

Thea saw tears well up in Felicity's eyes and she reached up to quickly wipe them away. Oliver smiled down at her with the most tender expression and he pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"My brother is one of the best people I know, but knowing Felicity made him even better. And now they're going to spend the rest of their lives together."

She folded up her speech and stuck it back in her pocket. Then she raised her glass of champagne.

"So please, join me in raising a glass to Oliver and Felicity. May you two live _happily ever after_."

She emphasized the last three words of her toast and everyone else repeated it.

She glanced at Tommy and Digg out of the corner of her eye to see them both scowling at her, but she hid her smirk by lifting the flute to her lips.

Everyone applauded politely after the toast and she walked back to her table to give the happy couple a hug.

"Thank you, Speedy," Ollie whispered in her ear.

"You're the best sister-in-law a girl could ever ask for," Felicity murmured.

She grinned back at them and pressed a kiss on both their cheeks before walking over to Tommy and Digg's table.

"So," she said imperiously, her hand out. "Fork it over, losers."

They exchanged mutinous glances, but then reached into their pockets for their wallets.

"Face it, Thea, you just got lucky," Tommy muttered under his breath.

She smirked. "Haven't you learned by now, Tommy? I'm always right."


End file.
